ENGRAVING. 
defpifed. From that timts, fitch fculptiircs and feals be¬ 
came common in Europe, and particularly in Germany, 
whence great numbers were fent into other countries: but 
they were far fhort of the beauty of thofe of the ancients. 
Tite number of engraved gems has been fo great, that 
the collection made by Mr. TafTie, in Leicefter-fquare, 
London, alone occupies two large quarto volumes, in the 
mere recital. 
The diamond, which is the hardeft of all gems, is only 
cut by itfelf, or with its own matter. The firft thing in 
this branch of engraving is, to cement two rough dia¬ 
monds to the ends of two flicks big enough to hold them 
Ready in the hand, and to rub or grind them againft each 
other till they be brought to the form defired. The duft 
or powder that is rubbed off ferves afterwards to polith 
them, which is performed with a kind of mill that turns 
a wheel of foft iron. The diamond is fixed in a brafs difii; 
and, thus applied to the wheel, is covered with diamond 
duft, mixed up with oil of olives. Rubies, fapphires, 
and topazes, are cut and formed the fame way on a cop¬ 
per wheel, and polifiied with tripoli diluted in water. 
Agates, amethyfts, emeralds, hyacinths, granites, rubies, 
and others of the fofter ftones, are cut on a leaden wheel, 
moiftened with emery and water, and polifhed with tri¬ 
poli on a pewter wheel. Lapis-lazuli, opal, &c. are 
polifhed on a wooden wheel. To fafhion and engrave 
vafes of agate, cryftal, lapis-lazuli, &c. they make life of 
a kind of lathe, 1 ke that ufed by pewterers, to hold the 
veftels, which are to be wrought with proper tools: that 
of the engraver generally holds the tools, which are turned 
by a wheel; and a velfel is held to them to be cut and 
engraved, either in relievo or otherwife; the tools being 
moiftened from time to time with diamond duft and oil, 
or with emery and water. To engrave figures or devices 
on any of thefe ftones, when polifiied, fuch as medals, 
feals, &c. they ufe a little iron wheel, the ends of whofe 
axis are received within two pieces of iron, placed up¬ 
right, as in the turner’s lathe ; and to be brought clofer, 
or fet further apart, at pleafure ; at one end of the axis 
are fitted the proper tools, being kept tight by a fcrew. 
The wheel is turned by the foot, and the (lone applied 
by the hand to the tool, and is ftiifted and conducted as 
occafion requires. 
The art of engraving upon glafs appears to be no new 
difcovery. It is certain that the ancient Greek artifts 
formed upon glafs, both raifed and engraved figures; as 
may he feen by articles (till preferved in collections, 
though it is probable that many pieces of glafs may have 
been moulded like pafte ; for that art alfo is of very great 
antiquity. It appears likewife that they cut upon plates 
of glafs and hollow glafs veftels all kinds of figures and 
ornaments, in the fame manner as names, coats of arms, 
flowers, landfcapes, &c. are cut upon drinking-glafles at 
prefect. If we can believe that learned engraver in done, 
the celebrated Natter, the ancients employed the fame 
kind of inftruments for this purpofe as thofe ufed by the 
moderns. They undoubtedly had in like manner a wheel 
which moved round in a horizontal direction above the 
work-table, or that machine which by writers is called a 
lapidary’s wheel. 
Many, however, affirm, that the art of glafs-cutting, 
together with the necelfary inftruments, was firft invented 
in the beginning of the feventeenth century. The inven¬ 
tor is faid to have been Cafpar Lehmann, w ho originally 
was a cutter of ft eel and iron ; and who made an attempt, 
which fucceeded, of cutting cryftal, and afterwards glafs, 
in the like manner. He was in the fervice of the emperor 
Rodolphus II. who, in 1609, conferred on him the title of 
lapidary and glafs-cutter to the court, and gave him a pa-* 
tent by which every one except himfelf was forbidden to 
exercife this new art. He worked at Prague, where he 
had an aftiftant named Zacharias Belzer; but George 
Schwanhard the elder, one of his fcholars, carried on the 
fame bufmefs to a far greater extent. The latter, in 
»6i£, went to Prague to learn the art of glafs-cutting from 
Vox.. VI. No. 393. 
81.1 
Lehmann. By h is good behaviour he fo much gained 
the efteem of his mafter, who died a bachelor in 162?., 
that he was left his heir; and obtained from the emperor 
Rodolphus a continuation of Lehmann’s patent. Schwan¬ 
hard, however, removed to Nuremberg, where he worked 
for many of the principal nobility ; and by tbefe means 
procured to that city the honour of being accounted the 
birth-place of this new art. That engraving on glafs is 
of fo modern a date, is alfo attempted to be confirmed by 
Zahn, who fpeaks of it as of a new employment carried 
on, at that time, particularly at Nuremberg. He de- 
fcribes the work-table, as well as the other inftruments; 
and gives a figure of the whole, which he appears to 
have confidered as the firft. It may be feen, however, 
that this invention does not belong entirely to the mo¬ 
derns ; and, to deny that the ancients were altogether 
unacquainted with it, would be doing them an injuftice. 
It was forgotten, and again revived ; which is proved by 
count Caylus. Before this invention, with a wheel, 
there were artifts who, with a diamond, engraved figures 
on glafs, which were every where admired. The firft 
mention of a diamond being ufed among the moderns for 
cutting or writing on glafs, occurs in the fixteenth century, 
Francis I. of France, who was fond of the arts, wrote the 
following lines with his diamond ring upon a pane of 
glafs, at the caftle of Chambord, in order to let Anne de 
Pifteleu, duchefs of Eftampes, know that he was jealous: 
Souvent femme varie , 
Mai habit qui s'y fie. 
Put no trufl in womankind ; 
Fickle as the waves and wind. 
The hiftorian recorded this not fo much on account of 
the admonition, as becaufe it was then thought very in¬ 
genious to write upon glafs. About the year 1562, fef- 
toons and other ornaments, cut with a diamond, were ex¬ 
tremely common on Venetian glaffes, which, at that 
period, were accounted the beft. George Schwanhard 
the elder was a great mafter in this art ; and, in more 
modern times, John Koft, an artift of Augfburg, orna. 
mented, in a very curious manner with a diamond pencil, 
fome drinking-glades which were purchafed by the em¬ 
peror Charles VI. 
The art of etching on glafs, faid to have been firft difeo- 
vered in 1771 by Scheele the chemift, can be proved to 
have been in ufe fo early as the year 1670, by the before- 
mentioned artift, Henry Schwanhard. We are told, that 
fome aqua regia having fallen by accident upon his fpec- 
tacles, the glafs was corroded by it; and that he thence 
learned to make a liquid by which he could etch writing, 
and figures of men, animals, plants, and flowers, upon 
plates of glafs. It is very probable that his preparation 
was the fame as that known to fome artifts as a fecret 
in 1721. 
The prefent mode of etching on glafs is as follows: the 
plate or veflel of glafs is to be completely covered with 
melted wax or maftic ; and when the coating becomes 
hard, it is to be engraved upon by a very fharp-pointed 
needle or other inftrument of that kind, as in common 
etching. A mixture of oil of vitriol and fiuor acid is 
then to be poured upon the plate, and the whole covered 
with an inverted China veffcl, to prevent the evaporation 
of the fluoracid. In two days the glafs plate may be 
cleared of its coating, when all the traces of the needle 
will be found eaten in, or etched upon it. Thus by the 
action of the fluor acid, a fk.ilful artift can engrave upon 
the hardeft glafs, in the fame manner as he can engrave 
upon copper with aquafortis.—In the “ Memoirs of the 
National Inftitute at Paris,” publilhed in 1802, a favour¬ 
able report was made by the prefident Camus, of fome 
attempts to fubftitute prepared plates of glafs for engrav¬ 
ings, inftead of thofe of planifhed copper. The procefs 
is yet in its infancy : but the Inftitute entertain fanguine 
hopes of its being fpeedily brought to maturity. The 
fuperiority of the one fubftance over the other, if it can 
9 X be 
