Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896) was a German-born lithographer and wood engraver known for founding Kronheim & Co. and working with George Baxter.

Biography
Kronheim was born on October 26, 1810 in Magdeburg, Germany. By the age of 22 he resided in Edinburgh, and died at the age of 85 in 1896, in Berlin.

Kronheim & Co.
During the mid-1860s, Kronheim and Co. printed hundreds of biblical prints, adding to the firm's eventual total output of as many as 5000 different prints.

Kronheim & Co. utilized the Baxter process to create prints. Kronheim's chief innovation in the field was the use of zinc instead of wood blocks, which reduced the amount of time needed to complete prints, but resulted in a less shiny finish.

By 1855, thanks in large part to the firm's use of zinc blocks, Kronheim & Co. had produced over 1000 different prints, including some for the 1855 Paris Exhibition. After the exhibition, Kronheim sold his share of the business to Oscar Frauenknecht.

Kronheim retired to Germany and attempted to set up other printing businesses, including an American one. However, these efforts failed, causing Kronheim to lose all of his investments. So, he rejoined Frauenknecht and his old firm, Kronheim & Co., but not as a partner. The firm expanded into Manchester and Glasgow.

In 1875, due to the rise of steam power and steam lithography machines, Kronheim & Co. ceased using the Baxter process.

Kronheim worked under Frauenknecht for Kronheim and Co. until 1887.

Legacy and Criticism
Kronheim and Co. produced at least 4000 and as may as 5000 different prints. This immense output has led some critics (such as Courtney Lewis) to assert that his firm was more concerned with quantity than quality. Others, such as author Mike Martin, argue that Kronheim simply preferred a larger subject variety. Martin argues that Kronheim was an important book illustrator, of children's books in particular, and that much of his work was of high quality.

Kronheim is best known for his set of four large coaching scene prints, entitled Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

In July 2000, the New Baxter Society held an exhibition sampling Kronheim's work at St. Albans.

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Lithography (from Greek ?????, lithos, "stone" and ???????, graphein, "to write") is a method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. Printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by German author and actor Alois Senefelder as a cheap method of publishing theatrical works. Lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material.

Lithography originally used an image drawn with oil, fat, or wax onto the surface of a smooth, level lithographic limestone plate. The stone was treated with a mixture of acid and gum arabic, etching the portions of the stone which were not protected by the grease-based image. When the stone was subsequently moistened, these etched areas retained water; an oil-based ink could then be applied and would be repelled by the water, sticking only to the original drawing. The ink would finally be transferred to a blank paper sheet, producing a printed page. This traditional technique is still used in some fine art printmaking applications.

In modern lithography, the image is made of a polymer coating applied to a flexible aluminum plate. The image can be printed directly from the plate (the orientation of the image is reversed), or it can be offset, by transferring the image onto a flexible sheet (rubber) for printing and publication.

As a printing technology, lithography is different from intaglio printing (gravure), wherein a plate is either engraved, etched, or stippled to score cavities to contain the printing ink; and woodblock printing or letterpress printing, wherein ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images. Today, most types of high-volume books and magazines, especially when illustrated in colour, are printed with offset lithography, which has become the most common form of printing technology since the 1960s. The word lithography also denotes photolithography, a microfabrication technique used in the microelectronics industry to make integrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems.