112 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 



and prepared plates showing the necessary operations in finishing 

 an etched plate, together with prints from it and methods of print- 

 ing, with the material that it may be printed on. Then follows etch- 

 ings of both the last 'century and this, foreign and American, the 

 latter predominating, especially those of recent date. Due to recent 

 gifts, works of the following American etchers are shown : John 

 Taylor Arms, Loren Barton, Benjamin C. Brown, Howell C. Brown, 

 William H. Drury, Anne Goldthwaite, Charles E. Heil, Arthur W. 

 Heintzelman, Eugene Higgins, Bertha E. Jaques, William A. Levy, 

 Margaret Manuel, Carl J. Nordell, Louis Orr, Louis C. Rosenberg-, 

 Ernest D. Roth, Henry B. Shope, J. Paul Verrees, Frederick Weber, 

 and Franklin T. Wood. 



Following the etching in line comes the subject of dry point, which 

 while it is not an etching process is popularly included. 



Dry pointing, so called because the work of the point is not fol- 

 lowed by the use of an etching agent, is 1 executed upon the bare 

 metal plate with a steel point, held like a pencil. It is indeed 

 simply scratching the copper. A scratch made with a point does 

 not remove the metal, but turns it up alongside the furrow, pro- 

 ducing a ridge which rises above the plate, and is called the bur. 

 This bur retains the ink, and causes the rich velvety blacks charac- 

 teristic of most dry-point prints. When these blacks are not wanted, 

 the bur can be removed by scraping, in which case the ink is re- 

 tained only in the furrows; there are, therefore, two kinds of dry- 

 point work, with and without bur. A very characteristic mark, 

 by which dry pointing can be detected, is the white line produced 

 by the back of the bur in printing. As the back of the bur stands 

 above the plate in relief, it is, or at least it may be, wiped clean 

 by the hand of the printer, and the result is a white line stamped 

 into the paper, and running parallel to the furrow out of which 

 the bur was thrown up. These white lines', however, are not always 

 present, as the ink, if the wiping is done gently and the bur is low, 

 may hide them. However, the bur being above the surface of the 

 plate, when being printed, presses down into the paper, leaving 

 grooves. These are more often present than the lines mentioned 

 above. 



Dry pointing is probably quite as old as engraving. The Master 

 of the Amsterdam Cabinet, who flourished between 1475 and 1500, 

 is the earliest and is thought to have used lead or pewter. Albrecht 

 Diirer's earliest dated dry point is of 1510. Rembrandt was the 

 first artist of note to use it extensively. 



The few tools needed are shown with a finished plate and im- 

 pressions from it in the first, second, and last state. 



In the historical series, photographs of the work of the Master 

 of the Amsterdam Cabinet and Albrecht Diirer show the early be- 



