The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Blond, Jacques Christophe le

BLOND, Jacques Christophe le, a printer of engravings in colors, born in Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1670, died in a hospital in Paris in 1741. He was bred a painter, and in 1711 went to Amsterdam, where he met with great success in painting miniature portraits. He conceived the idea of an establishment to print engravings in colors, and spent the greater part of his life and all the means he could obtain upon experiments which were comparatively unsuccessful. He worked mainly in London and Paris, and, finding at last that he was not to obtain the brilliant results anticipated, turned his attention to producing Raphael's cartoons in tapestry, in which he also failed for lack of means to finish his work. He is regarded as the inventor of printing in colors.