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De luxe prinls of charming 
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Grand Rapids ftirniture Companj 
Twelve Galleries 
Su^^estioa 
Q uite often the most inviting interior 
is that which traces its inspiration to 
some unpremeditated source —which 
may account for the joy of “scheming” even 
the simplest room. 
f][ Today, for instance, in strolling through 
^ these twelve Galleries you may happen 
upon a fine porcelain vase; on the morrow it 
flowers into a Lamp of softly glowing beauty. 
Then again, a seemingly old Refectory Table 
and quaint Windsor Chairs may engage your 
admiration; ere long they evolve themselves 
into a Dining Room in which discriminative 
taste cannot fail to discern individuality and 
decorative significance. 
Indeed, a visit to these Galleries will reveal 
^ not alone the Furniture but those kindred 
objects which will impart 
distinction to all the rooms 
of the well considered 
house. Their cost, withal, 
is by no means prohibitive. 
Masterpieces in Mezzotint 
{Continued from page 28) 
The result of all this in the completed 
product is a print of peculiarly soft 
velvety appearance, possessing a bloom 
that is somewhat easily marred, whence 
fine proofs should be carefully protected 
from injury. Here it will be well to ob¬ 
serve that in fine mezzotint work re¬ 
straint is shown in not permitting the 
velvety surfaces to comprise portions 
which should not be rendered by too 
great an effect of this sort, as in trees 
and Other things which require more of 
the suggestion of a different texture. 
Etched lines (first used in this connec¬ 
tion by George White, before 1731), 
have often been combined with pure 
mezzotinting, as was the practice in 
Turner’s plates for his famous Liber 
Studorium. It is interesting to note 
that copper is the metal most often used 
and the one yielding the best result in 
making mezzotints. However, this metal 
is so soft that the plates deteriorate rap¬ 
idly under the pressure of printing and 
only thirty prints of the finest quality, 
or thereabouts, can be pulled from a 
mezzotint plate before impressions begin 
to show indications of grayness, increas¬ 
ing with the additional prints pulled. 
After the first twenty-five or thirty 
plates perhaps some seventy-five “good 
enough” impressions .can be had. Such 
may be lovely, indeed, though not com¬ 
parable with the earlier proofs. In 1820 
the experiment of mezzotinting on hard¬ 
ened steel was put forth in a small plate 
—a portrait of Queen Caroline—by Wil¬ 
liam Say, and certain later mezzo- 
tinters followed with this material, al¬ 
though steel coating the copper plate by 
the electrotype process became the com¬ 
moner method in such work as that 
done by Sartain and his contemporaries 
for the mezzotint illustrations to the 
American publications of the mid-19th 
Century Graham’s Magazine, etc. 
The Early Mezzotints 
The earliest known mezzotint is the 
Hollander, Ludwig Von Siegen’s portrait 
of the Landgravine Amelia of Hesse en¬ 
graved in 1642, which was followed in 
1643 by one of the Empress Eleonora, 
wife of Ferdinand H, and in 1644 by a 
superb pair of mezzotint portraits of 
William of Orange and the Princess 
Mary. It may be that these early plates 
by Von Siegen were produced by rough¬ 
ening with a circular file and scraping, 
and that Abraham Blooteling of Hol¬ 
land, who came to England in 1762, 
should be credited with the invention of 
the rocker. Cyril Davenport seems in¬ 
clined to think that Von Siegen’s in¬ 
vention was confined to the use of 
small-toothed roulettes to make dotted 
lines, curves and shadowed spaces. 
Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the 
Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, appears to 
have learned mezzotinting from Von 
Siegen in 16S4 when these two artists 
first met in Brussels, and to have im¬ 
parted the secret in turn to John Evelyn, 
who wrote of it in his “Sculptura” 
(1662) and to the Canon Theodor Cas¬ 
par von Furstenberg, a prebendary of 
Metz, who himself practiced it. Later 
Wallerant Vaillant was initiated into the 
secret by Prince Rupert, whose assistant 
he became. Prince Rupert’s first known 
mezzotint is “The Great Executioner,” 
engraved in 1658, after the painting by 
SpagnolettQ. A smaller print, the head 
only from the same subject, appeared in 
the volume of “Sculptura” already re¬ 
ferred to. Prince Rupert introduced the 
mezzotint into the Low Countries and 
into England, and the Canon von Fiirst- 
enberg introduced it into Germany. In 
this latter connection one may remark 
that the art of mezzotint in Germany 
never rose to distinction. Dr. Lippmann 
of Berlin concurred in this estimate. In 
France mezzotinting became known as 
la maniere anglaise or as la maniere 
noire, but it is to be considered chiefly 
as an English art, as it is the British 
mezzotinters who have given us the 
real masterpieces. 
Early Masters 
Among the early masters in mezzotint 
were William Sherwin (1669-1714), 
David Loggan (1635-1693), Francis 
Place (1647-1728), Abraham Blooteling 
(1635-1693), already mentioned, and 
John Vandervaart (1647-1721), who 
came from Harlem to England in 1674. 
This Vandervaart is believed to have 
been the teacher of the great English 
mezzotinter (1655-1742). Sir Christo¬ 
pher Wren is also thought to have prac¬ 
ticed mezzotinting, as the Wren fam¬ 
ily Parentalia, published in London in 
1750 not only makes mention of a Moor 
head in mezzotint by Sir Christopher, 
but states that he was the “first inventor 
of Mezzo Tinto,” which of course was 
not the fact, nor does Evelyn’s “Sculp¬ 
tura” corroborate Sir Christopher’s 
prowess as a mezzotinter at all, merely 
making mention of his dextelity as a 
draughtsman. The early mezzotinters 
frequently resorted to retouching and 
doctoring their prints, but as the art ad¬ 
vanced there became no necessity for 
any such practice. Mention should be 
made here of the attribution of the in¬ 
vention of mezzotint to Prince Rupert 
on the pprtrait of that prince engraved 
by Vaillant. This bit of flattery subse¬ 
quently led many to believe Prince Ru¬ 
pert to have been the originator of the 
art, although there can be no doubt but 
that Von Siegen’s experiments antedated 
Prince Rupert’s. 
John Smith, mentioned above, Jean 
Simon (1675-1755?), a Frenchman who 
studied under Smith after his arrival in 
London, William Faithorne the younger 
(1666-1701?), George White (flourished 
1714-1731), already mentioned in con¬ 
nection with the first use of the etched 
line in mezzotint work, John Faber, who 
came from Holland in 1707 established 
himself as a mezzotinter “att ye Golden, 
Eagle near ye Fountain Tavern, Strand,”] 
John Faber Junior, his son (16841756), J 
the last of the masters of the early^ 
eighteenth-century school, — all these 
were notable mezzotinters, some of them 
prolific in their output. Thomas Beard, 
John Brooks and Andrew Miller carried 
the art to Ireland, where it took root 
and flourished in Dublin, producing in 
turn those worthy descendants and bril¬ 
liant mezzotint engravers of a later 
date, 1770-1800,—MacArdell, Houston,! 
Spooner and Purcell, who found their 
way to London. Of the work of James 
MacArdell one cannot speak enthusiasti¬ 
cally enough, for they merit all the 
praise they have received. Sir Joshua 
Reynolds once said that MacArdell’s 
mezzotints from his paintings would im¬ 
mortalize his own art, and it has lent 
lustre to the painter’s effort. With 
MacArdell’s advent mezzotint reached 
its high altitude. 
Mezzotints in America 
Let us turn back, in point of time,' 
now to note the introduction of mezzo¬ 
tint engraving in America. To Peter 
Pelham, whose portrait of the Reverend 
Cotton Mather appeared in 1727, must 
be conceded the honor of producing the 
first mezzotint executed in the Colonies. 
This portrait was, by the way, the very 
first meritorious engraving by any proc¬ 
ess whatsoever to appear in America. 
Pelham, who was born in England, 
came to America and settled in Boston, 
was the step-father of John Singleton 
Copley, the painter. It is thought that 
he kept school from 1734 to 1748. He 
is credited with some fourteen mezzotint 
plates engraved after his coming to 
America. A portrait of Mrs. Centlivre, 
dated 1720, and done in England, is his 
earliest dated portrait in mezzotint. In 
{Continued on page 60) '■ 
