St James Park / A Tea Garden

Detail

Stipple engravings – As the name implies, the result of this style of engraving is a composition produced entirely of minute dots. The surface of the copper plate was covered with wax and the dots made with an etching needle or with a roulette (a wheel with metal teeth). The main part of the surface is bitten with acid, but additional work was often carried out directly onto the plate with the etching needle and graver. To produce a true colour print from a single plate, colour would be applied to the hollowed out portions all at the same time and then the surface would be wiped clean. The resulting impression would show white between the colour dots – the true test of the colour printed stipple. Stipple engravings were far less likely to be finished by hand than mezzotints, the other printed-in-colour technique in popular use at the same time.