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Printing Plate

late 18th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

To appreciate the detail within this engraved plate by Francis Holl (1815–84), you must look through a magnifier. The printmaker has used stipple for the facial features and extremely fine lines for the hair. He created the black of the clergyman’s clothing using extremely close triple hatching. The hardness of steel allowed for much finer and shallower lines to be engraved, making triple hatching possible – on copper this would cause the ink to pool too much to allow printing. The dark background almost seems to have been deliberately chosen to demonstrate the capability of steel for rendering these extremely close lines.
Steel was used from the early 1800s for large commercial print runs because it was capable of printing 10 times the number of impressions as copper before it would start to wear down.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
engraved steel plate
Brief description
Engraved steel printing plate. Francis Holl. Portrait of a clergyman, Great Britain, 1880s.
Physical description
Steel printing plate, with bevelled edges, engraved with the portrait of an elderly man, seated and viewed from the waist up. He has receding white hair and wears a dark coat and waistcoat with pocket watch.
Dimensions
  • Height: 41cm
  • Width: 34.5cm
Measured by DH 30/06/2010
Marks and inscriptions
Engd by F. Holl (Label attached to verso of plate.)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Edgar Holl
Subjects depicted
Summary
To appreciate the detail within this engraved plate by Francis Holl (1815–84), you must look through a magnifier. The printmaker has used stipple for the facial features and extremely fine lines for the hair. He created the black of the clergyman’s clothing using extremely close triple hatching. The hardness of steel allowed for much finer and shallower lines to be engraved, making triple hatching possible – on copper this would cause the ink to pool too much to allow printing. The dark background almost seems to have been deliberately chosen to demonstrate the capability of steel for rendering these extremely close lines.
Steel was used from the early 1800s for large commercial print runs because it was capable of printing 10 times the number of impressions as copper before it would start to wear down.
Associated object
Bibliographic reference
Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1929, London: Board of Education, 1930.
Collection
Accession number
E.579-1928

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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