Mineralotypy: Nature Printing Agates

Alois Auer von Welsbach (1813-1869), born in Wels, Austria, was the first to print a publication explaining the process of nature printing. He became director of the Staatsdruckerei (Austrian National Printing Office) in Vienna in 1841 and worked there until 1868. Under his directorship, the printing office expanded, employing over 900 people and making use of, for the first time, new advances in electricity and printing. While working at the Staatsdruckerei, Auer published an “Album of the Imperial Court and State printing works in Vienna. Nature Printing,” featuring 61 nature prints using a method developed with one of his colleagues.

The Austrian naturalist Franz Leydolt (1810-1859) collaborated with Auer in 1851 to develop a relief method for agates (a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colours). First, the surface of a sliced agate was etched with acid to reveal its distinct surface-pattern. A relief printing surface was then obtained, either through stereotyping or by electrotyping in two stages, and printed on a relief printing press. Auer referred to this method as “mineralotypy,” and, later, as Naturselbstdruck.