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 in the outline of the subject prior to grounding the plate, a practice which has since been generally adopted.

Of the work of John Smith there is a great variety for the collector to choose from. He was born at Daventry in 1652, and died at Northampton in 1742. His best mezzotints are after the portraits of Sir Godfrey Kneller. As far as the prices realised nowadays for mezzotints his work affords the best value for money. His Sir Christopher Wren and his Sir William Petty may be procured in fine state for £1 and £2 respectively. Wycherley after Lely may be bought for £2 10s. in perfect state. His James II. (when Duke of York) leaning on an anchor, is worth in proof state, £9, and his Earl of Ailesbury after Lely, proof state, fetches £10 10s. under the hammer, but there is his ''Charles XII. of Sweden'' to be bought for 15s., and many of his smaller prints for considerably less. We reproduce a fine specimen of his work, The Jolly Topers after Gerard Dou, which faithfully renders the realism of that painter. (Facing p. 240).

Peter Pelham, who was born in London in 1684 and died in 1738, is another of the early eighteenth-century engravers whose work may fall within reach of collectors for whom this volume is intended. He engraved the portraits of George I. and George II., both after Kneller, and a great many other of that painter's subjects. Many of his mezzotints may be procured for less than a sovereign apiece, and often something under half a sovereign will buy a good specimen of his work. His Oliver Cromwell after