282 ENGRAVING 







It is unnecessary to trace back, among the nations of antiquity, all that might bo 

 written respecting the state of this art in its various applications ; but, as an example 

 of its adoption for a purpose altogether practical, a passage from Herodotus may b 

 adduced. This historian, referring to a period about 500 years before the Christian 

 era, says : ' Aristagoras exhibited to the king of Sparta a tablet, or plate, of brass, 

 on which was inscribed every part of the habitable world, the seas, and the rivers ; ' 

 or, in other words, Aristagoras, who was a native of Cuma, had in his possession a 

 metallic map. Moreover, as it is intended to limit this notice to the art of on^ravin^ 

 on steel or copper for printing purposes, wo pass over those branches or departments 

 of the art that relate to die-sinking, seal-engraving, and engraving on coins, the latter 

 a common process with the Ancient Britons and Saxons, who also, according to the 

 opinion of many modern antiquaries, used to ornament their weapons of war with 

 designs cut by the graving tool. 



The transition from all previous methods of engraving, to that which in some degree 

 assimilates to what is now practised as the result of the discovery of printing, has been 

 thus described by the late Mr. Landseer, who quotes an earlier writer, Mr. Strutt : 

 ' Soon after the Conquest (though, from other information, I think it must have been 

 at the least 250 years from that memorable era) a new species of engraving, entirely 

 different from the mingled work of the engraver, goldsmith, and chaser, which had 

 preceded it, was introduced into, or invented in, England, of which there is scarcely 

 an old country church of any consequence, but affords some curious specimens, and 

 England more than any other nation in Europe. The brass plates on our old 

 sepulchral monuments are executed entirely with the graver, the shadows being 

 expressed by lines or strokes, strengthened in proportion to the required depth of 

 shade, and occasionally crossed with other lines a second and, in some instances, a 

 third time, precisely in the same manner as a copper-plate is engraven that is in- 

 tended for producing impressions. These engraved effigies are commonly found on 

 those horizontal tombstones which form part of the pavement within the churches ; and 

 the feet of the congregation, which kept the lights bright by friction, filled the in- 

 cisions with dust, and thus darkened the shades : very neat or exquisite workmanship 

 is not therefore expected ; yet some of them bear no small evidence of the abilities of 

 the monks, or other workmen, by whom they were performed.' Impressions, techni- 

 cally called ' rubbings,' are taken from these monumental brasses by antiquaries, for 

 the purpose of illustrating works in archaeology. The process is simple enough : a 

 sheet, or sheets, as may be required, of white paper, sufficiently large to cover the 

 brass tablet, are laid upon it; these are then rubbed over with a lump of ' shoemaker's 

 heel -ball,' a composition of wax and lamp-black, which leaves on the paper an impres- 

 sion of the raised portions of the metal. 



The fifteenth century, which must always be considered as the dawn of universal 

 light and knowledge, gave to the world the art of printing, and from this invention, 

 arose a new era in the art of engraving. The earliest method of printing, both books 

 and illustrations, was, as is described under the article ENGBAVING ON WOOD, from en- 

 graved blocks or tablets. It seems singular that, though engraving on various metals 

 had been practised long before that on wood, no attempt had ever been made to obtain 

 impressions from the plates ; like many other important discoveries, this is said to have 

 been the result of accident. Vasari, the historian of Italian art, says that, in the year 

 1460, Maso, or Thomaso Finiguerra, a Florentine goldsmith, chanced to let fall a small 

 engraved plate, on which, as was customary with engravers, ho had rubbed a little 

 charcoal and oil, that ho might better see the state of his work, into some melted 

 sulphur, and observing that the exact impression of his engraving was left on the 

 sulphur, he repeated the experiment, by passing a roller gently over it. It was suc- 

 cessful, and Finiguerra imparted his discovery to Baldini,also a goldsmith of Florence, 

 by whom it was communicated to others. But the most probable origin of the art of 

 printing from metallic plates, is that which is attributed to the early Italian workers 

 in niello, or inlaid modelling work, an art used for ornamenting table utensils, swords, 

 armour, &c. : this art consisted in cutting or engraving the required design on silver, 

 and filling up the incisions with a black composition, said to bo made of silver and 

 lead, which, from its dark colour, was called by the ancients nigdlum, abbreviated by 

 the Italians into niello ; this mixture, when run into the engraved lines, produced a 

 regular effect of chiar-oscuro in the entire work. From these engraved plates or 

 objects, the artists in niello, who were the goldsmiths and silversmiths of that period, 

 were accustomed to take impressions, by smoking tho metal, and then, after cleaning 

 the smooth surface with oil, impressing upon it a piece of damp paper. From such an 

 origin, or from some other very similar to it, undoubtedly, cnme tho art of chalcography, 

 or plate-printing, and it is equally certain, that tho art of engraving with the /W/'/>, 

 or as it is now called, 'lino engraving,' arose in tho workshops of tho gold- and silver- 

 smiths. 



