There is a worry I have heard expressed in the litho studios here in China:
If all the litho stones in the world come from one quarry somewhere in Germany and that quarry is closed now, then every time a stone breaks the lithographs get smaller and smaller. Soon there will be no stones. One artist asked, “well couldn’t we discover stone in China? Has anyone ever looked?”
Apparently there have been multiple sources of litho stone, but not all sources were of equal quality. Another issue is that stone lithography is no longer commercial and therefore re-opening quarries or exploring new sources is not economically feasible.
litho quarries in Europe:
Towards 1920 the Solenhofen quarry began to show signs of depletion but the crisis of lithography saved it from being exhausted.
—A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.
For many years, the Solnhofen deposits were the only source of lithographic limestone. French lithographic limestone from quarries near Montdardier, about 6 km south of le Vigan, Gard was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851…The largest lithographic printing stone ever quarried came from Le Vigan, 230x150cm (90x59 in).
Le Vigan Region, Gard, Montdardier. A quarry for lithographic stones d’Avèze. This image was taken around 1910.
The American Lithographic Stone Company was organized in Louisville, Kentucky in late 1868. It initially focused its operation on quarries in Overton County, Tennessee,[13] but shortly before 1900, it opened a quarry at Brandenburg, Kentucky. This quarry was the only commercial source of lithographic stone in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Unlike the Solnhofen stone, Kentucky lithographic limestone was slightly dolomitic, and it was judged to be competitive with Solnhofen stone for some purposes, but not for the highest quality work.[14][15]
—Lithographic Limestone, Wikipedia
One quarry in the US was found to have stone of similar quality to the Solnhofen stone:
Gable Quarry, southwest of Osage, Mitchell County, Iowa. “XX” Beds of fine grained lithographic stone. Color plates from the Iowa Geological Survey 1903 Annual Report were printed on stone from Mitchell County.
At the turn of the 20th century, a town in north-central Iowa was founded because of this interest in high-quality lithographic stone…The quarries operated for only a short period, however, and the town failed to prosper as metal engraving replaced lithographic stone in providing good quality printing at lower cost.In 1968, a representative of Tamarind Workshop visited Iowa to evaluate the potential of using stone from Lithograph City. Preliminary results indicated that its quality compared very well with Solnhofen stone…In the course of their studies, however, it was discovered that white onyx could be used as a substitute. —Bill J. Bunkee (Adapted from Iowa Geology 1991, No. 16, Iowa Department of Natural Resources)
