62 Multiplicat'wn tf Glafs Plates for Priiititig. 



medjatciy to proceed, in attempting for rac the execution of calls or copies in glafs from 

 eafUBkin copper-plates ■which I fent him, and which I had got engraved here for the pur- 

 pbfe< 4[t afforded me much fatisfailion to find that this eminent artifl received my appli- 

 cation with great candour, and that lie purfued the objeft pointed out with promptnefs, 

 ;tbout which I had applied to him in the line of his profeinon. Though, indeed, at the 

 beginning feme difficulties ftood in the way, yet by a repeated correfpondence, and tranf- 

 jmiffion of different effays from his furnace, anfwering to patterns fent up at different times 

 by the mail coach, Mr. Taffie foon furniftied me with feveral calls in glafs and enamel, 

 from engraved copper-plates, which appear to juftify my firft conceptions, and to go fomc 

 length, even thus early, to enfure the fuccefs of the plan and method, which I had brought 

 forward. 



The other day I made ready for printing, three of thefe plates ; two of them bearing 

 infcriptions, and the other a head in profile from Le Brun. I might have mentioned that 

 the plates, when fully finilhed, have an appearance of great elegance; thofe efpecially 

 which are made of white glafs, called enamel ; and it is remarkable how eafily they are 

 cleaned from the ink, in the courfe of the workmen's operations, though they never are 

 heated farther than by handling them. From the three plates above mentioned, I now take 

 the liberty of fending you proofs *, or impreffions, inclofed. So far as I know, they arc 

 the firft of the kind ever produced. As the very firft offerings, therefore, of a new art, 

 they may poffibly appear to you in a light more or lefs intercfting, and as an earneft of 

 fomething confiderably more perfeft foon to follow, when we are affifted by engravings of 

 fome elegance, and executed with more addrefs in feveral refpe£ls, with a view to a de- 

 (lination fo peculiar. 



It will notefcape you, that by means of a feries of glafs plates, inconfulerable in point 

 of number, deriving the engraving from the fame original pattern, to fucceed one another 

 at the prefs, juft before figns of wearing might appear, a vaft many impreffions, all perfeSlly 

 ftmilar, might be obtained, even for ages. This at once would be beftowing a new cha- 

 radler upon the rolling prefs, which hitherto has been much circumfcribed in this refpe£l, 

 by the perilhable nature of engraved copper-plates, and from their having no relation to 

 any common archetype. Much could be faid of the advantages of thus commanding an 

 «ver enduring identity amongft the impreffions afforded by engraved plates, even of a fmall 

 fize, efpecially in the inftance of circulating Bank Paper. I confefs, indeed, it was the 

 frequent alarming forgeries upon fuch currency, efpecially that of the Bank of England, 

 which moved me in November laft to bring to experiment the prefent fcheme, which has 

 been for feveral years in my mind. Should the glafs-plates be carried to a fufficient pitch 

 of delicacy, 1 perceive, on feveral accounts, that they would afford a refuge of fingular 

 importance againft all attempts of forgery ; provided we were to found upon archetypes of 

 iopper-plate highly elaborated, and, befides the mere infcription, exhibiting by collateral 

 embellilhment the peculiar manner of fome eminent mafter in the art of engraving. 



• It would have been evidently ufelcfs to have copied theft plates by way of exhibition to the reader. They 

 are not diftinguidialile from copper-plate prints ; unlefs, perhaps, by fome minute circumfianccs arifing from 

 the fubliqucnt poli{hinj> of the glafs. But this lad obfcivation m«ft be uncertain, unkfs proofs from the ori- 

 jinal topper were alfo lud for cotnparifou. . N, 



Before 



