Brussels, von Siegen communicated his invention to Prince Rupert, who upon his return to England discussed its merits with John Evelyn, whose "Sculptura" in 1662 contains the first account in English of the new process. Prince Rupert did some fine plates in mezzotint himself, notably The Great Executioner after Spagnoletto, done in 1658. The selection of this subject by the nephew of Charles I., who had so recently been executed, is singular. This print represents a tall man standing with naked sword in one hand and holding up the head of St. John the Baptist in the other. There is a smaller plate by Prince Rupert of the head only of the same figure.
The early exponents of the art were William Sherwin (1669-1714), David Loggan (1635-1693), Francis Place (1647-1728), Abraham Blooteling (1634-1695), and John Vandervaart (1647-1721) with his splendid portrait of the Duke of Monmouth after Wissing.
By this time not only had the art taken root in England, but it was chiefly practised in this country, and was known on the Continent, in France, as la manière anglaise or la manière noire, and in Germany as schabkunst (the scraping art), or schwarzkunst (the black art), and in Italy as l'incisione a fumo (engraving in smoke) or l'incisione a foggia nera (engraving in the black manner). It takes its stand as an English art. During the early eighteenth century there were John Smith and Jean Simon both doing excellent work, followed by G. White, who introduced etching into mezzotint
