Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/247

 lines that have been worn out of all recognition by the many copies pulled from them. Here it is a matter of necessity to know "states," although it is an insult to term what are practically impostures by this technical designation.

With the seventeenth century the great line of masters of line engraving in its most classic form ended. The family of the Drevets must be excepted—Pierre Drevet (1663-1738), Pierre Imbert, his son (1697-1739), and Claude Drevet, his nephew. Drevet père was a pupil of Masson. He engraved mainly portraits, of which Louis XIV., ''Louis XV. when a boy (in fine state, worth £3 10s.), and Cardinal Fleury'' (worth 18s.) are the best known. His son, Pierre Imbert Drevet, claims recognition as surpassing his father by his famous full-length portrait of Bossuet after Rigaud, executed in 1723. His Adrienne Lecouvreur and his Cardinal Dubois carry on the traditions of Nanteuil. The hand of the graver had not yet lost its cunning in representing textures—of flesh, of hair, of lace, and of satin.

As an instance of "states" without reason, take this Bossuet. A fine impression before the dots after the printer's name sells for £6 10s. The same before the top of the chair was finished, and with the misspelt word "Trecenses" instead of "Tregensis," £12. The same before any dots after the printer's name, £8 15s. The same with the dots, 15s., or again cut close, half a sovereign. Here is an instance of differentiation without a difference. To collect prints in such fashion is to reduce the subject to