DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
[Plate A.] A Trial Plate. This plate is given to show the effect of difference in length of biting. The lines in the eight upper rectangles were all drawn before the first immersion of the plate, those on the left with a fine point, those on the right with a somewhat coarser one. After the plate had been in the bath for three minutes, it was withdrawn, and the upper rectangle on the left stopped out. The upper rectangle on the right, however, had hardly been attacked by the acid, as the lines had been drawn with a blunter point, which had not scratched the copper, while the fine point had. It was therefore allowed to bite another three minutes before it was stopped out. The other rectangles were allowed to bite ten, twenty, and thirty minutes respectively, by which means the difference in value was produced. The figures a, b, c perhaps show the results of partial biting still better. The three were simply lined with the same point. After the first biting they all looked like a. This was then stopped out, together with the corners of b and c. After the second biting b and c were both as b now is. The whole of b was now stopped out, and part of c, allowing only the inner lozenge to remain exposed to the acid. It is evident that the difference in color in these figures is not due to the drawing, but is entirely the result of biting.
[Plate B.] Vessels in Boston Harbor. A first essay in etching by Mr. Walter F. Lansil, marine painter, of Boston. The artist has kindly given me permission to use this plate, for the purpose of showing that the home-made tools and materials described in the Introductory Chapter are quite sufficient for all the technical purposes of the etcher. It is eminently “home-made.” The ground was prepared according to the recipe given; the points used were a sewing-needle and a knitting-needle; the tray in which it was etched was made of paper covered with stopping-out varnish; even the plate (a zink plate by the way) did not come from the plate-maker, but was ground and polished at home.
[Plate I a.] Etching after Claude Lorrain. Unfinished plate, or “first state” (see [pp. 23] and [29]). This, however, is not the etching itself; it is a photo-engraving from the unfinished etching. But it does well enough to show the imperfections alluded to by M. Lalanne in the text.
[Plate I.] Etching after Claude Lorrain. Finished plate, or “second state” (see [pp. 36] and [56]). Clean wiped.
[Plate II.] Etching after Claude Lorrain. Printed from the same plate as Pl. I, but treated as described on [p. 57]. The difference between the two plates shows what the art of the printer can do for an etching. The difference would be still greater if Pl. II. were better printed; for it is not printed as well as it might be, although it was done in Paris.
[Plate III.] À plat, une pointe—flat biting, drawn with one point; that is to say, the plate was immersed only once, and the lines are all the result of the same needle, so that the effect is only produced by placing the lines close together in the foreground, and farther apart as the distance recedes (see [p. 43]). À plat, plusieurs pointes—flat biting, several points, that is to say, one immersion only, but the work of finer and coarser points is intermingled in the drawing. Par couvertures, plusieurs pointes—stopping out and the work of several points combined.
[Plate IV.] Fig. 1. See [p. 27]. Fig. 2. See [p. 45]. Figs. 3, 4 and 5. See [p. 46.]
[Plate V.] Fig. 1. Worked with one point; effect produced by stopping out (see [p. 44]). Fig. 2. Mottled tint in the building, &c., in the foreground; stopping out before biting, in the sky (see [p. 51]).