Thomas Bewick Zebra, Illustration to 'General History of Quadrupeds' published 1790 See detail below

A printmaking process developed at the end of the eighteenth century. Whereas the older process of wood cutting had allowed only relatively crude images to be cut and printed from wooden planks, wood engravings were made with a sharpened metal ‘burin’ on wood (usually boxwood) cut across, rather than along, the grain. This hard, closegrained surface allowed the use of tools which could produce highly detailed images, printed in relief.