288 ENGRAVING 



style. The distinguishing excellences of mezzotint are the ric 

 in exquisite softness, find the harmonious blending of light a 



the rich depth of its shadows, 



an exquisite softness, and the harmonious Mending of light and shade : on the other 

 hand, its great defect is the extreme coldness of the high lights, especially where they 

 occur in broad masses. 



The instruments used for this kind of work are, burnishers, scrapers, shading tods, 

 roulettes, and a cradle, or rocking tool. The burnisher and scraper differ in form from 

 those already described : the roulette is used to darken any pnrt which may have been 

 scraped away too much; it ought to be of different sizes: the cradle is of tlio same, 

 form as the shading tool, and is used for the purpose of laying grounds. 



The operation of engraving in mezzotint is precisely the opposite of that adopted 

 in all other styles : the processes in the latter are from light to dark, in the former 

 from dark to light, and are thus effected. A plate of steel or copper is indented all over 

 its face by the cradle, an instrument which somewhat resembles a chisel with a toot/ted 

 or serrated edge, by which a burr is raised on every part in such quantities that if 

 filled in with ink, and printed, the impression would exhibit a uniform mass of deep 

 black : this operation is called laying the ground; it is performed by rocking the cradle 

 to and fro, and the directions, or ways, as the engravers call them, are determined Ivy 

 a plan, or scale, that enables the engraver to pass over the plate in almost any number 

 of directions without repeating any one of them. "When an outline of the subject 

 has been first etched in the ordinary way before the ground is laid, the engraver pro- 

 ceeds to scrape away, and then burnish the highest lights, after which the next lightest 

 parts are similarly treated, and the process is repeated after this manner till the work 

 is finished ; the deepest shades are produced from the ground that is left untouched. 

 There is, however, no style of engraving for the execution of which it is so difficult to 

 lay down any definite rules, for almost every engraver has his own method of working. 



Chalk or stipple engraving, for the terms are synonymous, is extremely simple. 

 The plate has first to be covered with the etching ground, and the subject transferred 

 to it in the ordinary way : the outline is then laid in by means of small dots made 

 with the stipple graver ; all the darker parts are afterwards etched in dots larger and 

 laid closer together. The work is then bitten in with the acid ; and the ground being 

 taken off, the stipple graver must again be taken up to complete the operation ; the 

 light parts and the dark are respectively produced by small and largo dots laid in 

 more or less closely together. Stipple is well adapted for, and is often used in, the 

 representation of flesh, when all the other parts of the subject are executed in line : 

 hence it is very frequently employed in portraiture, and in engravings from sculpture. 

 Chalk engraving is simply the imitation of drawings in chalk, and is executed like 

 stipple, only that the dots are made with less regularity, and less uniformity of size ; 

 in the present day, the two terms are generally considered as expressing the same 

 kind of work. 



Aquatint engraving, which represents a drawing in Indian-ink or bistre even more 

 than does mezzotint, has been almost entirely siiperseded by lithography, and still 

 more recently by chromo-lithography ; and there seems little probability that it will 

 ever come into fashion again. This being the case, and as any detailed description 

 of the mode of working would, to be of any service, occupy a very considerable space, 

 it will, doubtless, be deemed sufficient to give only a brief outline of its character and 

 of the mode of operation ; this we abbreviate from the notice of Mr. Fielding, for- 

 merly one of our most able engravers in aquatint. The process consists in pouring 

 over a highly-polished copper-plate a liquid composed of resinous gum, dissolved in 

 spirits of wine, which latter, evaporating, leaves the resin spread all over the plate in 

 minute grains that resist the action of the aqua-fortis, which, however, corrodes the 

 bare surface of the copper that is left between them : this granulated surface is called 

 a ground. The ground having been obtained, the margin of the plate should bo var- 

 nished over, or stopped out, and, when dry, the subject to be aquatintcd must bo 

 transferred to the plato, cither by tracing or drawing with a soft blacklead pencil, 

 which maybe used on the ground with nearly the same facility as paper ; if the former 

 method bo adopted the tracing must bo carefully fastened down to the copper by bits 

 of wax along the upper edge. A piece of thin paper, covered on one side with lamp- 

 black and sweet oil, is placed between the tracing and the ground, with the coloured 

 >wnwards, and every lino of ihe su!>ji et must !><> passed over with the tracing 

 point, using a moderate pressure. The tracing being finished and the pap> r removed, 

 a wall of prepared wax, about three quarters of nn inch high, must, bo put round the 

 plate, with a largo spout at one corner, to allow of the acid running off. 



The plato is now ready for uso ; and the completion of tho design is commen 

 stopping out the highest lights on the e.!<r<s of clouds, wat.-r. &<.. with ;i mixture of 

 oxide of bismuth and turpentine varnish, diluting it with spirits of turpentine till of a 

 proper consistence to work freely. Next pour on tho acid, composed of one part of 

 strong nitric acid and five parts of water; lot it remain, according to its strength, 



