Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/70

 CHAPTER IV

PYROTECHNY IN EUROPE (continued)

During the later part of the seventeenth century, and subsequently, many prints appeared depicting firework displays; their number seems quite out of proportion to the total number of prints published in that period.

Possibly this may be taken as some indication of the popularity of firework displays at the time, or may give the measure of the favour in which they were held by the artists of the day.

Many of these prints are of little value to the student of pyrotechny, as they merely depict the more or less elaborate structure for the display by daylight, and whatever may be their architectural or artistic merit there is generally no indication of what actual fireworks were to be used, or how they were to be displayed.

In some cases a list of the works is given under the engraving, adding greatly to its value in the eyes of the pyrotechnist, and some, although they are considerably in the minority, are intended to represent the display in progress, although on the rather futuristic method of showing everything going off at one time.

A series of prints published in Germany during the seventeenth century are among the earliest in which a serious attempt is made to depict pyrotechnic effects; the series includes "Swedish Fireworks," dated 1650; "Fireworks at Nuremburg in celebration of Peace," of the same date; "Fireworks given at Pleissenburg by the Prince of Saxony," 1666; and the same year, "Fireworks at Vienna"; all three