There were several anatomical plates, mostly printed in coloured inks, which were mezzotinted about the same time, but they are not important; then Faber’s portraits of founders of the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge were used as illustrations to Rolt’s “Lives of the Reformers,” published in 1759. These plates bear Houston’s name as mezzotinter, but this is only one of a number of such re-letterings which occur in the history of mezzotints.
Robert Dunkarton engraved several book illustrations, mostly portraits, and he also helped in the mezzotinting of some of the plates in Turner’s “Liber Studiorum.” He was a portrait painter, and his mezzotints are better than Faber’s. John Young was an eminent mezzotinter, and in 1815 he issued a large book of portraits of the Emperors of Turkey printed in colours. They are not particularly good, but are interesting as being the first set of mezzotints to be issued in colour as book illustrations. The book is rare and, if the colour is strong, of considerable value.
Turner’s “Liber Studiorum” was issued between 1807 and 1819, and many mezzotinters helped in the work—F. C. Lewis, Charles Turner, W. Say, R. Dunkarton, G. Clint, J. C. Eastling, T. Hodgetts, W. Annis, H. Dawe, T. Lipton, and S. W. Reynolds. The plates were not pure mezzotint, but were strongly etched as well with some aquatinting; the first etching was done by J. M. W. Turner, and some of the mezzotinting. I think he probably worked finally upon all the plates in various ways with burin, scraper and roulette.
Several books of landscapes are illustrated with mezzotints, done on copper or steel, by T. G. Lupton, many of them after Turner, and John Constable’s landscapes have been admirably mezzotinted by David Lucas; perhaps the best known is “English Landscape Scenery,” published in 1855.
In all mezzotints, large or small, it should be noted that the condition of the print is important. The blacks should be deep and velvety; if they show greyish or spotted, the print is from an old plate. Mezzotints on steel last better than if they are on copper. I know of no foreign books illustrated with mezzotints.
There are several ways of making aquatints, but the best is the oldest. It was invented by a Frenchman, J. B. Le Prince, towards the end of the eighteenth century, and although of foreign origin, the art has been most extensively and successfully practised in England.
Le Prince allowed powdered resin to settle evenly on a copper plate, fixed the minute grains by heat, and then treated the plate with acid as if it were an etching. When the plate was cleaned the acid is found to have bitten a little line round each grain of resin, so that an aquatint made by this method consists of a series of small rings more or less thick. The different thicknesses are produced by stopping out some portions and re-biting others. The general effect of aquatint is delicate and pleasing, and it can be strengthened where necessary with a little etching. Aquatint helps its followers considerably, and a good aquatint made from a drawing or painting will often have luminous effects that are wanting in the original.
There is one other method of aquatinting that must be mentioned, but there are more which are too numerous and too unimportant to require explanation here. It is a modern invention, and consists of coating the plate with resin dissolved in alcohol; when this dries it breaks up into little pieces, and the acid can penetrate between these pieces as in Le Prince’s method. But the resulting prints do not show Le Prince’s little circles, but small irregular polygons.
Le Prince sold his secret to Charles Greville, and he passed it on to Paul Sandby, who not only became an eminent aquatinter but published a book in 1775 called Twelve Views in Aquatinta. This drew much attention to the beautiful new art, and it rapidly became very popular in England. English aquatinters, like English wood and stipple engravers, always liked colour, whether added by hand or printed in ink, and so we find that the large majority of English aquatinters enjoy the added beauty of colour.
The publishers Ackermann and Boydell both deserve much honour for their consistent patronage of aquatints, and no doubt our splendid record in that art is largely due to their enterprise.