This block is believed to have been engraved Thomas Bewick (ca. 1753–1828) himself, rather than by someone in his workshop. Bewick was the first artist to exploit fully the potential of wood engraving. In wood engraving the image is usually made on a block of hard wood, typically boxwood, which the engraver works with a burin instead of the knives and gouges used in woodcutting. This makes it possible to produce more delicate effects. Bewick pioneered the white line method, carving some of his design into the block to be ‘read’ as white lines. He combined this with the more usual black line engraving, in which the part of the design not to be printed was cut away leaving the outline and shading of the design in relief. Compare the foliage in the tree (in white line) to the tomb and urn (in black line).
Solomon Hodgson was a print and bookseller. Hodgson’s widow asked Bewick to engrave this memorial image as a memento, for which he originally charged £2 and 15s, later withdrawing the charge.