REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 115 



interest or commercial value, while the true color print, is as a rule of 

 much interest and large commercial value. Color prints may be 

 made from a single plate at one impression, all the colors being very 

 carefully rubbed or painted on the plate. Or a single plate may be 

 printed several times, different tones of ink being used each time. Or 

 two or more plates, each printed in a different color. Lithography 

 or relief plates may be combined with intaglio plates. Examples of 

 each of these methods and combinations are shown. 



The beginnings of most arts are so covered with the dust of ages 

 that it is difficult to determine who should have the credit. In the 

 case of color prints from one plate, Hercules Seghers (about 1590- 

 1645) is the first person to be mentioned, but some claim that his 

 prints were colored after printing. Joannes Teyler, latter half of 

 the seventeenth century, is credited with making true color prints. 

 Peter Schenck (1645-1715), about 1700, made true color prints of 

 flowers. All seem to agree that the French engraver Jacob Christoph 

 LeBlon (1667-1741) was the first person to make color prints based 

 on the three-color theory of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), that all 

 colors could be made by the proper combination of red, yellow, and 

 blue. LeBlon, in 1720, went to London and made large reproductions 

 of paintings. He used mezzotint plates, but found it was necessary 

 to add a fourth plate in brown or black to give strength. He is 

 said to have issued 10,000 prints, but only about 100 are known to 

 exist. From a financial standpoint he was unsuccessful, going into 

 bankruptcy twice. He returned to Paris in 1732, making a few 

 prints. He died there, in poverty, in 1741. His associates and fol- 

 lowers continued to issue color prints. In the Medical Museum 

 Library, Washington, will be found some examples in color by this 

 method, printed in 1738 by Joannes Ladmiral (about 1680-1773). 

 LeBlon's assistant, J. B. Gautier D'Agoty (about 1717-1785), and 

 members of his family were his most famous followers. Edouard 

 D'Agoty (1745-1783) interested Carlo Lasinio (about 1757-1839) 

 in this process of color printing from several plates and he was about 

 the last to use it before the present revival. Lasinio's portrait of his 

 teacher Edouard D'Agoty, printed in colors, sold at auction in Paris 

 in 1908 for 76,000 francs, over $15,000, the highest price ever paid 

 for a single print at a public sale. 



In recent years all the old methods of making prints in color have 

 been revived and very beautiful and artistic work is being done. 

 Practically all the old work was the reproduction of paintings. 

 Much of the present production is of the same character, but many 

 artists are making original color prints of excellent quality. 



One of the more important gifts of the year was that of Miss 

 Beatrice S. Levy, of Chicago. It was a set of three aquatint plates 



