that this little volume is intended. It is my hope that it will quicken into being the dry bones of the subject and stimulate the collector into collecting with fine and discriminating taste. The end of the journey may be close and unremitting study at the Print Room of the British Museum or the Art Library at South Kensington, or at Christie's or any other fashionable auction-room, but in the less competitive fields of the lower slopes of print collecting there is unlimited pleasure to him who loves "the lesser things done greatly."
Explanatory definitions accompanied by enlargements of portions of prints will prove valuable to the beginner in identifying the differing processes of engraving. Illustrations of a print during stages of its progress under the engraver's hand and when finished, will enable the collector to acquire some knowledge of the technique of engraving.
Typical examples are given of prints by well-known masters in wood engraving, line engraving, stipple, mezzotint, lithography, and etching. Allusion is made to the finer specimens and prices given, but the volume is intended to appeal to a wider public than that usually associated with the collecting of "rare states" of prints.
It is the opinion of the author that prices do not necessarily follow the artistic qualities of engravings, being more subject to fashionable caprice than anything collected at the present day. It is hoped that the suggestions given in this volume in regard to the various schools of neglected engravers will
