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Message:: [QUOTE="2manybooks, post: 428558, member: 8267"]I believe this description is misleading. Early prints created with wood blocks were what is usually referred to as "woodcuts". The image was created on the "plank" side of a piece of wood (a surface that would have been in the vertical orientation of the original tree). The term "wood engraving" should be reserved for the technique of creating the design on the cross section of a tight grained wood - typically boxwood, but fruit woods might also be used. Both are relief techniques, where the artist cuts away the areas that will be white in the final print, leaving in relief the sections that will be coated with ink. Woodcuts are usually worked with a knife. Wood engravings are worked with tools similar to those used in metal engraving. The artist can create much more detailed images with a wood engraving. The blocks can also withstand the greater pressure used in mechanical presses.The technique of wood engraving was developed and popularized by the English artist Thomas Bewick, toward the end of the eighteenth century. It became widely used in book illustration, and continued in use until largely replaced by photo-engraving techniques in the late 19th century.So, the OP's block is a wood engraving, with the image worked on the end grain. This would date it to the 19th century, as others have said. The size is consistent with its likely use as a book illustration.[/QUOTE]