Treize Mille cuivres, la chalcographie du musée du Louvre (english subtitles)
This extraordinary video describes the workshop of La Chalcographie de la Réunion des musées nationaux, where a collection of 13,000 engraved copper plates are printed on demand for the general public. The word chalcography comes from the Greek Khalkos meaning: copper and graphein meaning: to write. These are the original copper plates produced by some of the finest artists since XVIth century, owned by the Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques. Running just over 17 minutes, it is worth watching the entire piece and then, getting on their website to place an order.

In 1690, the Dutch painter Jan van der Heyden (1637–1712) and his son, also Jan, published a volume of engravings depicting various Amsterdam fires and the machinery van der Heyden invented to fight them. The Description of the Newly Discovered and Patented Hose Fire Engine and Its Way of Extinguishing Fires is called the first firefighting manual. Certainly it is the most beautiful. Some of the plates were engraved by van der Heyden himself and at least one is attributed to Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708).

The first edition of van der Heyden’s book included nineteen plates. Seven additional prints were added when a second edition was published after his death in 1735. The copy in the Graphic Arts Collection has unfortunately been unbound and its eighteen plates (1652-1684) matted separately.

Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), Beschryving der nieuwlyks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde slang-brand-spuiten en haare wyze van brand-blussen (Description of the Newly Discovered and Patented Hose Fire Engine and Its Way of Extinguishing Fires) (Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz, 1690).

The American artist Gerald Geerlings was awarded first prize for the best etching at the 1933 “Century of Progress,” Chicago World’s Fair. Click here to view a large photographic panorama of century of progress from the Library of Congress collection.

According to the Chicago Tribune‘s 1934 World’s Fair Notes I: “In two seasons the 85,000 lights at the Fair have cost $800,000 forty. According to J. L. McConnell, construction chief, 35,000 of them have been broken or replaced. The largest was a 3,000 watt arc and the smallest a 73h watt bulb.” [Chicago Tribune 10/21/1934]

“[Shepard] Vogelgesang collaborated with J. L. McConnell, the director of electrical effects, to get an idea of how to effectively merge color and light at night. Illumination in 1934 was reported to be about fifty per cent greater than in 1933. Two scintillators shot variegated patterns of colored light into the sky. The most spectacular new feature of the 1934 fair was the huge new fountain which was illuminated and colored by submarine flood lights extending the length of the fountain. The ever changing lights could be controlled either automatically or by hand.” [Century of Progress website http://www.cityclicker.net/chicfair/index.html]

William Elmes (active 1804-1816), General Frost Shaveing Little Boney, 1 December 1812. Hand-colored etching. “Invade My Country indeed-I’ll Shave-Freeze-and Bury you in Snow-You little Monkey.”

 

John Cawse (1778-1862), Genius, of Bazaar arrived at London, 29 May 1816. Hand-colored etching.

“This Monster who is a Native of Turkey has lately made his appearance in London & such is his power that by first appearing in Soho he got Acquainted with Mr Tr-t-r sinse which he has Spread Destruction through all the best houses in Town to the Great anoyance of all poor Shop-keepers.”

Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) after George Moutard Woodward (ca.1760-1809), Witches in a Hay Loft, 29 April 1807. Hand-colored etchng.

Charles Williams (1797-1830), Malignant Aspects Looking with Envy on John Bull and His Satelites, or a New Planetary System, 21 October 1807. Hand-colored etching.

 

 

J. Lewis Marks (ca.1796-1855),The Tyrant Overtaken by Justice is Excluded from the World, May 1814. Hand-colored etching.

 

Unidentified artist, The Devil and Doctor Fostus or a finishing dose for poor Hibernia, no date [1809?]. Hand-colored etching.

“Doctor Fostus’s invaluable remedy for Bankruptcies, poverty, distress, Nakedness, loss of trade, starvation, and all other Calamities incident to a long oppress’d and suffering people—the Doctor ever anxious to promote the Welfare of Ireland now offers his anti gallic Quintessence to the scrutinising eye of an enlightened populice [sic], with the trifleing advance of 50. pr cent, occasioned by the highly beneficial useful & necessary war, and happy success of our late & present glorious Expeditions— this Noble Medecine is composed of all the Doctors former & present happy compositions—a single Dose of which acts so powerfully on the Nervous System as to rid the patient of all his Earthly Infirmities—”

 

Found in: George M. Woodward (ca.1760-1809), The Caricature Magazine, or, Hudibrastic Mirror ([London] : Tegg, [1807-1820]). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Kane Room Rowlandson 1807.5f

This 18th century engraving only recently turned up in a folder. Created by an unidentified artist, the view documents the Cape Henlopen lighthouse only 13 years after it was built in 1767. The print was published in the February 1788 Columbian Magazine or Monthly Miscellany, opposite page 108, although it may well have been used as an illustration earlier.

Our print was donated in 1901 to Junius Spencer Morgan II, Class of 1888 (1867–1932), while he was working at the Princeton University Library, given by the American naturalist and author Charles C. Abbott (1843-1919).

Here is a brief history of the lighthouse by Eric A. Pearson Jr. “Bits and Pieces on Fabulous Cape Henlopen”:

“Before collapsing in April 1926, the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse guided vessels from the Atlantic Ocean into the Delaware Bay for more than 150 years. Built in 1767 with money raised from a series of lotteries in Philadelphia, the lighthouse was made of stone brought down from the Brandywine River north of Wilmington, Del., near the Pennsylvania border. The tower was 26 feet in diameter, 6 feet thick at the base, 69 feet, 3 inches tall, and 17 feet, 6 inches in diameter and 3 feet thick at the top. It was built on the north side of the Great Dune, 46 feet above sea level, to obtain additional height. Because the dune moved 3 to 5 feet a year, it eventually claimed the lighthouse.”