James McArdell (1729-1765), who, with his magnificent plate of Lady Grammont, "La Belle Hamilton," after Sir Peter Lely, showed the possibilities of the art. His Mrs. Middleton after the same painter is another masterpiece. Richard Houston (1722-1775) has left two superb plates after Sir Joshua, The Countess of Waldegrave and Her Daughter and Kitty Fisher. Thomas Frye (1710-1762) is one of the Dublin group of engravers; he had a varied art career. He established the Bow china factory, and later had a great many fashionable patrons who sat to him for miniatures and oil portraits at his house at Hatton Garden. He engraved two series of life-size heads such as Young Girl Holding up a String of Pearls, Young Man with Lighted Candle by His Side, together with his own portrait, and those of George III., Queen Charlotte, and many others.
In the space at our disposal we can do little more than mention the most prominent engravers of this great period. The prices of nearly all the mezzotints done by these men are very great, and to collect mezzotints is quite beyond the purse of the ordinary man. In general, portraits of ladies bring greater prices than those of men, but even the latter are nowadays coming within the whirl of fashionable collecting, and the prices realised under the hammer make it impossible to become the possessor of masterpieces of the art of mezzotint except at top prices.
The name of Valentine Green (1739-1813) stands high in the estimation of connoisseurs. Some of his prints, particularly those after Reynolds, sell for
