Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/45

 convey a faint idea of the appearance of the originals. It is therefore necessary that the prints themselves, or similar examples of the same class, be examined under a magnifying glass and studied by the beginner with the help of the hints conveyed in this chapter, and the full details as to the technique at the beginning of the chapters above mentioned.

The writer intends the seven full-page illustrations in this chapter to provide a key to enable the youngest collector to identify the appearance of a square inch of an old print under a magnifying glass. In order to master the rudiments of the technique of engraving, the student should provide himself with a good glass, procurable for a few shillings, such as stamp collectors or botanists use, an ordinary reading glass is hardly of sufficient strength.

The order in which these enlargements appear is the order of the chapters in the book. The first illustration is an enlargement of a portion of an etching by Hollar. In the original the whole-length figure of the lady in costume of the period of 1644 is only 3-1/4 in. high. The great delicacy of Hollar's work is the chief point for consideration by the beginner. Below this appears an illustration of a portion of an etching by A. Queyroy, entitled À Mestras, which appears in its entirety (opposite p. 74). The rough network of lines shows the etcher's work. Ragged, broken lines intersecting each other, sky-lines irregular and informal, and loops and scratches for the foliage—these denote etching. Why and how they appear in this manner will be explained later.