Certain chromolithographs, printed from oilstones upon paper and
known as decalcomanie pictures, were imported.
Held that
they were, as printed papers, subject under sec. 2504 of the
Revised Statutes to a duty of twenty-five percent
ad
valorem.
The question involved in this case is, whether certain articles
imported by the defendants, Charles Moller and Paul E. Vacquerel,
into the port of New York, known as decalcomanie pictures, are
subject to duties as "printed matter," or as "manufactures of
paper, or of which paper is a component material, not otherwise
provided for." 12 Stat. 192; 13
id. 213; Rev.Stat., p.
474, sec. 2504, also p. 479.
The statutes impose the duties in the language following,
viz., on
"books, periodicals, pamphlets, blank-books, bound
Page 97 U. S. 366
or unbound, and all printed matter, engravings, bound or
unbound, illustrated books and papers, and maps and charts,
twenty-five percent
ad valorem."
Rev.Stat.,
supra.
On
"paper, sized or glued, suitable only for printing paper,
twenty-five percent
ad valorem; printing, unsized, used
for books and newspapers exclusively, twenty percent
ad
valorem; manufactured of, or of which paper is a component
material not otherwise provided for, thirty-five percent
ad
valorem."
Id., p. 479, sec. 2504.
The goods in question were chromolithographs consisting of
landscapes, scenery, and other figures, printed from oil stones
upon paper, with one color printed on top of the other until the
picture is finished.
They are used for any purpose to which painting by hand can be
applied. There are no letters constituting language upon the face
of the paper.
They are made by means of lithographic stones, and printed from
the stones successively one after the other, according to the
number of colors; the difference between them and a
chromolithograph being that a chromo is printed positive, while
decalcomaine is printed positive and negative, but chiefly
negative.
After the picture is printed, it is sometimes covered with a
metal leaf, which is also put on by the process of printing; a
sizing is printed on from the stone, the metal leaf being placed on
top of the sizing by hand, it being too brittle to be placed on by
the roller, and it is run through the press, which prints the metal
leaf on top of the picture.
Arthur, the collector of the port, imposed and collected a duty
of thirty-five percent ad valorem upon the articles, as a
manufacture of paper. The importers paid the duty under protest and
brought suit to recover the excess. The court below decided that
the pictures were dutiable as printed matter and not as
manufactures of paper, and gave judgment for the plaintiffs. Arthur
then brought the case here.
Page 97 U. S. 367
MR. JUSTICE HUNT delivered the opinion of the Court.
We think that the decision of the court below was correct.
In
Arthur v. Rheims, 96 U. S. 143, it
was held that the fact that artificial flowers were a manufacture
of cotton did not determine that they were dutiable as components
of cotton, but that they were properly taxable under the specific
designation of "artificial flowers."
The same was held to be true of india-rubber goods in
Arthur
v. Davis, 96 U. S. 135, and
of the steel forming a part of spectacles, in
Arthur v.
Susfield, 96 U. S.
129.
No one would contend that a picture by an eminent artist painted
on canvas would be subject to duties as a manufacture of flax, or
that a line engraving of a high order or merit would come under the
head of a manufacture of paper, or that a lithograph taken by a
single impression does not fall under that branch of the statute
which imposes duties on prints or printed matter.
We do not perceive that the fact that the result is produced by
several impressions, and of a different color at each time, can
make a difference in the conclusion. In country places, we see
posted the advertisements of circuses and shows and of political
meetings upon sheets of paper of large size, printed in large type
of various colors, red, black, and blue, and requiring that the
paper should pass more than once through the press. It would be a
novel idea that these sheets were not printed matter.
It is not necessary, however, that the characters produced
should be letters or numerals, or the result of types or
stereotypes, or be reading matter, but the term "print" or
"printing" includes the most of the forms of figures or characters
or representations, colored or uncolored, that may be impressed on
a yielding surface.
Webster defines "to print:"
"2. To take an impression of; to copy or take off the impress
of; to stamp."
"3. Hence, specifically, to strike off an impression of, or
impressions of, from types, stereotype or engraved plates, or the
like, by means of a press; or to print books, handbills,
newspapers, pictures, and the like. "
Page 97 U. S. 368
"4. To mark by pressure; to form an impression upon; to cover
with figures by a press or something analogous to it; as to print
calico, &c."
"Print, noun: a mark made by impression; a line, character,
figure, or indentation made by the pressure of one body or thing
upon another."
"3. A printed cloth; a fabric figured by stamping."
"Lithograph: a print from a drawing on stone, . . . as a
lithographic picture."
Worcester says: "A mark, form, character; a figure made by
impression."
McElrath's "Commercial Dictionary:"
"Prints . . . impressions on paper, or engravings on copper,
steel, wood, or stone, representing some particular subject or
composition, and which may be either colored or uncolored."
"Lithographs, pictures, or designs printed on paper from the
lithographic stone, and on which they are traced or engraved. Both
when plain and when printed in colors they are commercially
regarded as engravings."
Homans' "Encyclopedia of Commerce:"
"Prints: impressions, on paper or some substance, of engravings
on copper, steel, wood, stone, &c., representing some
particular subject or composition. Prints, like painting, embrace
every variety of subject, but differ very widely in the manner in
which they are engraved."
McCulloch's "Dictionary of Commerce" uses the same language.
The pictures in question were printed from lithographic stones
by successive impressions, each impression giving a different
portion of the view and of a different color. Like other pictures,
they are made and used for the purpose of ornament. Equally with
engravings, copper-plates, and lithographs, they are printed, and
properly fall within the statutory designation of printed
matter.
If further argument were needed, it would be found in the
principle
noscitur a sociis. "Printed matter" is named in
the list with engravings, maps, charts, illustrated papers. With
these printed pictures are naturally associated.
With components and manufactures of paper are paper sized
Page 97 U. S. 369
or unsized and glued, used for books and newspapers exclusively.
These are descriptions of the article paper itself, and have no
natural relation to printed drawings or pictures.
Judgment affirmed.
