A real knowledge of engraving can only be attained by a careful study and comparison of the prints themselves, or of accurate facsimiles, so that books are of little use except as guides to prints when the reader happens to be unaware of their existence, or else for their explanation of technical processes. The value of the prints varies not only according to the artist, but also according to the fineness of the impression, and the “state” (or stage) in the making of the plate, which may be altered from time to time. “Proofs” may also be taken from the plate, and even touched up by the artist, in various stages and various degrees of fineness of impression.
The department of art-literature which classifies prints is called Iconography, and the classifications adopted by iconographers are of the most various kinds. For example, if a complete book were written on Shakespearian iconography it would contain full information about all prints illustrating the life and works of Shakespeare, and in the same way there may be the iconography of a locality or of a single event.
The history of engraving is a part of iconography, and various histories of the art exist in different languages. In England W.Y. Ottley wrote an Early History of Engraving, published in two volumes 4to (1816), and began what was intended to be a series of notices on engravers and their works. The facilities for the reproduction of engravings by the photographic processes have of late years given an impetus to iconography. One of the best modern writers on the subject was Georges Duplessis, the keeper of prints in the national library of France. He wrote a History of Engraving in France (1888), and published many notices of engravers to accompany the reproductions by M. Amand Durand. He is also the author of a useful little manual entitled Les Merveilles de la gravure (1871). Jansen’s work on the origin of wood and plate engraving, and on the knowledge of prints of the 15th and 16th centuries, was published at Paris in two volumes 8vo in 1808. Among general works see Adam Bartsch, Le Peintre-graveur (1803–1843); J. D. Passavant, Le Peintre-graveur (1860–1864); P. G. Hamerton, Graphic Arts (1882); William Gilpin, Essay on Prints (1781); J. Maberly, The Print Collector (1844); W. H. Wiltshire, Introduction to the Study and Collection of Ancient Prints (1874); F. Wedmore, Fine Prints (1897). See also the lists of works given under the separate headings for Line-Engraving, Etching, Mezzotint and Wood-Engraving.
ENGROSSING, a term used in two legal senses: (1) the
writing or copying of a legal or other document in a fair large
hand (en gros), and (2) the buying up of goods wholesale in order
to sell at a higher price so as to establish a monopoly. The
word “engross” has come into English ultimately from the
Late Lat. grossus, thick, stout, large, through the A. Fr. engrosser,
Med. Lat. ingrossare, to write in a large hand, and the
French phrase en gros, in gross, wholesale. Engrossing and the
kindred practices of forestalling and regrating were early regarded
as serious offences in restraint of trade, and were punishable
both at common law and by statute. They were of more
particular importance in relation to the distribution of corn
supplies. The statute of 1552 defines engrossing as “buying
corn growing, or any other corn, grain, butter, cheese, fish
or other dead victual, with intent to sell the same again.” The
law forbade all dealing in corn as an article of ordinary merchandise,
apart from questions of foreign import or export. The
theory was that when corn was plentiful in any district it should
be consumed at what it would bring, without much respect
to whether the next harvest might be equally abundant, or to
what the immediate wants of an adjoining province of the same
country might be. The first statute on the subject appears to
have been passed in the reign of Henry III., though the general
policy had prevailed before that time both in popular prejudice
and in the feudal custom. The statute of Edward VI. (1552)
was the most important, and in it the offences were elaborately
defined; by this statute any one who bought corn to sell it
again was made liable to two months’ imprisonment with
forfeit of the corn. A second offence was punished by six
months’ imprisonment and forfeit of double the value of the corn,
and a third by the pillory and utter ruin. Severe as this statute
was, liberty was given by it to transport corn from one part of
the country under licence to men of approved probity, which
implied that there was to be some buying of corn to sell it again
and elsewhere. Practically “engrossing” came to be considered
buying wholesale to sell again wholesale. “Forestalling”
was different, and the statutes were directed against a class of
dealers who went forward and bought or contracted for corn and
other provisions, and spread false rumours in derogation of the
public and open markets appointed by law, to which our ancestors
appear to have attached much importance, and probably in these
times not without reason. The statute of Edward VI. was
modified by many subsequent enactments, particularly by the
statute of 1663, by which it was declared that there could be no
“engrossing” of corn when the price did not exceed 48s. per
quarter, and which Adam Smith recognized, though it adhered
to the variable and unsatisfactory element of price, as having
contributed more to the progress of agriculture than any previous
law in the statute book. In 1773 these injurious statutes were
abolished, but the penal character of “engrossing” and “forestalling”
had a root in the common law of England, as well as
in the popular prejudice, which kept the evil alive to a later
period. As the public enlightenment increased the judges were
at no loss to give interpretations of the common law consistent
with public policy. Subsequent to the act of 1773, for example,
there was a case of conviction and punishment for engrossing
hops, R. v. Waddington, 1800, 1 East, 143, but though this was
deemed a sound and proper judgment at the time, yet it was
soon afterwards overthrown in other cases, on the ground that
buying wholesale to sell wholesale was not in “restraint of
trade” as the former judges had assumed.
In 1800, one John Rusby was indicted for having bought ninety quarters of oats at 41s. per quarter and selling thirty of them at 43s. the same day. Lord Kenyon, the presiding judge, animadverted strongly against the repealing act of 1773, and addressed the jury strongly against the accused. Rusby was heavily fined, but, on appeal, the court was equally divided as to whether engrossing, forestalling and regrating were still offences at common law. In 1844, all the statutes, English, Irish and Scottish, defining the offences, were repealed and with them the supposed common law foundation. In the United States there have been strong endeavours by the government to suppress trusts and combinations for engrossing. (See also Trusts; Monopoly.)
Authorities.—D. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce (1805); J. S. Girdler, Observations on Forestalling, Regrating and Ingrossing (1800); W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce; W. J. Ashley, Economic History; Sir J. Stephen, History of Criminal Law; Murray, New English Dictionary.
ENGYON, an ancient town of the interior of Sicily, a Cretan
colony, according to legend, and famous for an ancient temple
of the Matres which aroused the greed of Verres. Its site is
uncertain; some topographers have identified it with Gangi,
a town 20 m. S.S.E. of Cefalu, but only on the ground of the
similarity of the two names.
See C. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, v. 2568.
ENID, a city and the county-seat of Garfield county, Oklahoma,
U.S.A., about 55 m. N.W. of Guthrie. Pop. (1900) 3444; (1907)
10,087 (355 of negro descent); (1910) 13,799. Enid is served by
the St Louis & San Francisco, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé,
and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railways, and by several
branch lines, and is an important railway centre. It is the seat
of the Oklahoma Christian University (1907; co-educational).
Enid is situated in a flourishing agricultural and stock-raising
region, of which it is the commercial centre, and has various
manufactures, including lumber, brick, tile and flour. Natural
gas was discovered near the city in 1907. Enid was founded in
1893 and was chartered as a city in the same year.
ENIGMA (Gr. αἴνιγμα), a riddle or puzzle, especially a form of verse or prose composition in which the answer is concealed by means of metaphors. Such were the famous riddle of the Sphinx and the riddling answers of the ancient oracles. The composition of enigmas was a favourite amusement in Greece and prizes were often given at banquets for the best solution of them (Athen. x. 457). In France during the 17th century enigma-making became fashionable. Boileau, Charles Rivière Dufresny and J. J. Rousseau did not consider it beneath their literary dignity. In 1646 the abbé Charles Cotier (1604–1682)
