Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/400

 aquatint in the upper half of the plate and mezzotint in the lower part, "Sir, you have done in aquatint all the castle down to the rocks; did I ever ask for such an indulgence?" But Turner was engraved, and ably engraved, in aquatint by the French engraver, M. Brunet-Debaines, in his plates after Turner, and Agrippa Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus is an especially good example. Others, too, have produced many aquatints coloured by hand after Turner. The coloured aquatint, View near Plynlimmon (5 in. by 9-3/4 in.) sells for £2 2s. although it is unsigned work.

The subject of aquatint is one which is too little regarded by leading authorities on print collecting, and as a somewhat neglected field it offers to the discriminating collector an opening in the domain where, "armed with red gold and clutching at each other's throats," the crowd of snatchers at names and "states" let pass as of no market value the unconsidered gems of the masters of aquatint.

The homely landscape in brown tint and the delicately coloured scene have many points to recommend them to lovers of Art, and in point of beauty and exquisite grace many of these dainty aquatints snatch the laurels from more pretentious colour prints of various schools and are as diverse in character from each other as is the work of Morland and Cosway.

In passing, something should be said of work of the nature of C. M. Metz, an eminent engraver in the chalk manner and in aquatint. He was born at Bonn in 1755 and studied in London under Bartolozzi[*no period on scan] He is best known by his wonderful facsimile engrav