114 REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1924 



plate is covered with a thin turpentine varnish ; after it has set, very 

 dilute nitric acid is poured over the plate, and it is rubbed with a 

 camel's-hair brush until all the " touching stuff " is washed away. 

 The plate is now ready to be etched. 



The artists represented are Andre Scacciati (ab. 1726-1771), Jean 

 Baptiste LePrince, Stefano Mulinari (1741-ab. 1796), L. P. Henri- 

 quel-Dupont (1797-1892), J. G. Prestel (1739-1808), Francesco Kosa- 

 pina (1762-1841), and the following Americans: John Hill (1770- 



ab. 1850), John Henry Hill (1839 ), Will Simmons, Frederick 



K. Detwiller, John Taylor Arms, and Frederic Pauling. 



Shown in the same alcove with aquatint is soft ground etching, 

 which is a method of making intaglio plates, prints from which 

 resemble drawings on grained paper. 



As to the inventor of this process little is known. Dietrich Meyer 

 (1572-1658) has been mentioned, but his invention was of a "soft 

 etching ground," which is in no w&y related to the "soft ground 

 etching." Before his time a very tough ground was used, which was 

 hard to cut through. Meyer's ground contained wax and was easily 

 scratched. 



In the process known as "soft ground etching" a ball of wax 

 etching ground is melted with an equal amount of tallow, cooled, and 

 applied to the plate in the usual way. This ground never dries and 

 is very sticky. A fairly thin grained paper is now laid over the 

 ground and a drawing made on it with lead pencil or other like 

 medium. The paper is pressed into contact with the sticky ground 

 at every stroke of the pencil, so that when the drawing is finished 

 and the paper removed it pulls off the ground wherever the pencil 

 has made a mark, leaving the copper exposed. The plate is now 

 etched in the usual way, and the prints from this plate have the 

 grained appearance of the original drawing. 



Soft ground is used for both black and white and color prints, 

 with or without aquatint. This method was used in England from 

 about 1760, when Thomas Gainsborough made some plates, until 

 about 1830, when it was superseded by lithography. At the present 

 time this method has been revived and is being used by numerous 

 artists in this country and Europe. 



The technical exhibit is shown near by. John Crome (1768- 

 1821), Francois H. Villiers (1772-1813), Louis Marvy (1815-1850), 



Charles Vanderhoof, Louis Brunet-Debaines (1845- ), Benjamin 



C. Brown, George Wales, May Gearhart, and T. Francois Simon, are 

 the artists represented. 



One screen has been devoted to color prints. A color print is one 

 in which the colors are printed. A print which has been painted by 

 hand is not a color print, but a colored print. These latter have little 



