confusion of collectors and to the enrichment of the unscrupulous owners of the plates.
Wheatley's Cries of London in stipple, printed in brown or printed in colours, command high prices. Every mushroom dealer's shop can produce its set to command. Forgeries are as thick as blackberries. It is not to be gainsaid that the originals in stipple by Schiavonetti or Vendramini or Cardon are pretty when they are genuine. But is Hot Spiced Gingerbread, by Vendramini, worth £10, or Sweet China Oranges, by Schiavonetti, worth £8? It is against all the laws of common sense and proportion in art to know that Wheatley's Cries, a set of thirteen prints in colour, have fetched as much as £1,000. Surely all the fools in London must have been bidding against each other!
But it must be granted that in a certain manner some of these stipple engravings do manage to convey the sensuous elegance of the eighteenth century. Vauxhall and Ranelagh Gardens and the playful insouciance of the lighter side of life, and the picturesque tastes of the town are reflected in these prints. While Hogarth teaches us the sterner lessons these depict the lighter moods, so that posterity obtains thereby its light and shade of a complex period.
We reproduce an illustration of Mrs. Wilbraham from a painting by Gardner, engraved in stipple by Thomas Watson, and printed in brown, which is a fine example of delicate engraving, exhibiting all the best qualities of stipple without loss of strength in the delineation of character. (Opposite p. 192.)
