before working upon them with a graver. But Rembrandt (1607-1669) is the first master who extensively employed the method, and in the extent, variety, and power of his work he is undoubtedly the greatest etcher that ever lived.
Around the etchings of Rembrandt has grown a learned literature till the number of volumes of catalogues and scholarly monographs on the subject has almost reached the number of his plates. Men have even achieved renown in devoting their skill to copying his etchings, notably Benjamin Wilson in the middle eighteenth century; Captain Baillie, who published in 1792 a "series of 225 prints and etchings after Rembrandt, Teniers, Dou, Poussin, and others"; and then there is Bernard Picart, himself a great etcher and engraver, whose copies of Rembrandt's etchings and other old masters were published in 1738 in a volume of seventy-eight plates, entitled, "Les Impostures Innocentes."
There is, in view of the scope of the present volume, no need to linger over Rembrandt; the writer regretfully omits any illustrations of his etchings; but in the Bibliography there is ample reference to provide the student with a great and fascinating study of his work.
Hollar.—Among the early masters of etching within reach of the collector of modest means is Wenceslaus Hollar, who was born at Prague in 1607. He worked in England from 1637, and is included among our own engravers. At the age of twelve, at the taking of Prague, his family lost all, and he started on his travels, which did not lead him into pleasant places. The Earl of Arundel found him at Cologne, and
