ENGRAVING 443 ] rner s
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(illard. ymo- epara- a of cliing ound. Dsse s ound. late. the real burin work being used sparingly where most favourable to texture. Even in the exquisite engravings after Turner, by Cooke, Goodall, Wallis, Miller, Willmore, and others, who reached a degree of delicacy in light and shade far surpassing the work of the old masters, the engravers have recourse to etching, finishing with the burin and dry point. Turner s name may be added to those of Raphael, Rubens, and Claude in the list of painters who have had a special influence upon engraving. The speciality of Turner s influence was in the direction of delicacy of tone. In this respect the Turner vignettes to Roger s poems were a high-water mark of human attain ment, not likely ever to be surpassed. Pure line-engraving is still practised by a few artists in England and France. In England, Mr Jeens is a direct de scendant of the great line engravers, and will take high rank in the future by the perfection of his drawing and the good taste with which he has used the burin in shading. In France, the lovers of line-engraving have endeavoured to keep it alive by organizing themselves into a society for its encouragement. The most recent direction of the art, in the works of Ferdinand Gaillard, is a return to studied outline, but in combination with the most elaborate modelling. In his St Sebastian the outline is studied and marked with careful firmness throughout, and the modelling is thoroughly worked out in minute touches and fine lines, giving powerful relief without any but the most delicate chiaroscuro. Etching. We mentioned etching amongst the causes which have operated destructively on line-engraving. The chief difference between the two arts is that in line-engraving the furrow is produced by the ploughing of the burin, whereas in etching the copper is eaten away by acid. The English word is merely an Anglicized form of the Dutch etsen, which has the same origin as our verb to eat, con sequently, unless there is corrosion, or eating away of substance, there is no etching. The word is vulgarly and most erroneously used for pen drawing. To prepare a plate for etching it is first covered with etching-ground, a composition which resists acid. The qualities of a ground are to be so adhesive that it will not quit the copper when a small quantity is left isolated between lines, yet not so adhesive that the etching point cannot easily and entirely remove it ; at the same time a good ground will be hard enough to bear the hand upon it, or a sheet of paper, yet not so hard as to be brittle. The best is that of Abraham Bosse, which is composed as follows : Melt two ounces of white wax ; then add to it one ounce of gum-mastic in powder, a little at a time, stirring till the wax and the mastic are well mingled ; then add, in the same manner, an ounce of bitumen in powder. There are three different ways of applying an etching- ground to a plate. The old-fashioned way was to wrap a ball of the ground in silk, heat the plate, and then rub the ball upon the surface, enough of the ground to cover the plate melting through the silk. To equalize the ground a clabber was used, which was made of cotton -wool under horsehair, the whole inclosed in silk. This method is still used by many artists, from tradition and habit, but it is far inferior in perfection and convenience to that which we will now describe. When the etching-ground is melted, add to it half its volume of essential oil of lavender, mix well, and allow the mixture to cool. You have now a paste which can be spread upon a cold plate with a roller; these rollers are covered with leather and made (very care fully) for the purpose. You first spread a little paste on a sheet of glass (if too thick, add more oil of lavender and mix with a palette knife), and roll it till the roller is quite equally charged all over, when the paste is easily trans ferred to the cupper, which is afterwards gently heated to expel the oil of lavender. In both these methods of grounding a plate the work is not completed until the ground has been smoked, which is effected as follows. The plate is held by a hand-vice if a small one, or, if large, is fixed at some height, with the covered side downwards. A smoking torch, composed of many thin bees-wax dips Smoking twisted together, is then lighted and passed repeatedly the under the plate in every direction, till the ground has P late - incorporated enough lampblack to blacken it, The third way of covering a plate for etching is to apply the ground in solution as collodion is applied by photo graphers. The ground may be dissolved in chloroform, Liquid or in oil of lavender. The plate being grounded, its grounds- back and edges are protected from the acid by Japan varnish, which soon dries, and then the drawing is traced upon it. The best way of tracing a drawing is to use sheet gelatine, which is employed as follows. The gelatine is laid upon the drawing, which its transparence allows you to see perfectly, and you trace the lines by scratching the Tracing, smooth surface with a sharp point. You then fill these scratches with fine black -lead, in powder, rubbing it in with the finger, turn the tracing with its face to the plate, and rub the back of it with a burnisher. The black-lead from the scratches adheres to the etching ground and shows upon it as pale grey, much more visible than anything else you can use for tracing. Then comes the work of the etching- needle, which is merely a piece of steel sharpened more or less. Turner used a prong of an old steel .fork which did The as well as anything, but neater etching- needles are sold by needle, artists colourmakers. The needle removes the acid and lays the copper bare. Some artists sharpen their needles so as to present a cutting edge which, when used sideways, scrapes away a broad line ; and many etchers use needles of various degrees of sharpness to get thicker or thinner lines. It may be well to observe, in connection with this part of the subject, that whilst thick lines agree perfectly Thick well with the nature of woodcut, they are very apt to give and thin an unpleasant heaviness to plate engraving of all kinds, lines- whilst thin lines have generally a clear and agreeable ap pearance in plate engraving, Nevertheless, lines of moderate thickness are used effectively in etching when covered with finer shading, and very thick lines indeed were employed with good results by Turner when he intended to cover them with mezzotint, and to print in brown ink, because their thickness was essential to prevent them from being overwhelmed by the mezzotint, and the brown ink made them print less heavily than black. Etchers differ in opinion as to whether the needle ought to scratch the copper or simply to glide upon its surface. A gliding needle is much more free, and therefore communicates a greater appearance of freedom to the etching, but it has the incon venience that the etching ground may not always be entirely removed, and then the lines may be defective from insufficient biting. A scratching needle, on the other hand, is free from this serious inconvenience, but it must not scratch irregularly so as to engrave lines of various depth. The biting in former times was generally done with a mix- Bitiug- ture of nitrous acid and water, in equal proportions ; but in the present day a Dutch mordant is a good deal used, which is composed as follows : Hydrochloric acid, 100 grammes ; chlorate of potash, 20 grammes ; water, 880 grammes. To make it, heat the water, add the chlorate of potash, wait till it is entirely dissolved, and then add the acid. The nitrous mordant acts rapidly, and causes ebullition; the Dutch mordant acts slowly, and causes no ebullition. The nitrous mordant widens the lines; the Dutch mordant bites in depth, and does not widen the lines to any perceptible degree. The time required for both depends upon
temperature. A mordant bites slowly when cold, and more