_ETCHING_--EARLY RECORDS--DESCRIPTIVE--REMBRANDT'S INFLUENCE--WENCESLAUS HOLLAR. _MEZZOTINT_--INVENTION--DESCRIPTION--ARTISTIC QUALITIES--DILETTANTI ART--A MODERN MEZZO ENGRAVER "By its very character of freedom, by the intimate and rapid connection which it establishes between the hands and the thoughts of the artists, etching becomes the frankest and most natural of interpreters."--Lalanne. It has been asserted, and not without some show of reason, that of all the reproductive arts etching stands pre-eminent as a medium of pictorial expression wherein perfect freedom of drawing is retained. It has found considerable favour with artists, because it enables them to reproduce their own works with ease and rapidity, and without any perceptible loss of expressive power. =Early Records.=--The first account of the art of etching comes from Dutch sources, but whether or not it had its birth in Holland is a matter of pure conjecture. It was certainly cradled in the Low Countries, and finding the time and conditions of art congenial there, flourished abundantly. A book bearing the title, _A Book of Secrets_, was published in England in 1599. It was a translation from the Dutch, and described "A method of engraving with strong waters on steel or iron." The art of etching must have been known in Holland some time previous to the date of this publication. It was an unfortunate tendency which led the early etchers, or at any rate etchers of the latter part of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to practise a style of execution in direct imitation of the work of the graver. Their productions were robbed of their peculiar character and charm, their directness and completeness of representation. =Descriptive.=--The practical phase of the etcher's work claims a more than passing interest from the earnest reader. A carefully polished sheet of copper is covered with an acid resist in the form of a thin coating of wax or some similar composition. When this has been blackened by the smoke of a candle, or by any other suitable means, the drawing is made with steel points. The bright sheen of the copper exposed by each stroke of the point or etching needle will show the progress of the work very distinctly. The etching mordant is poured over the drawing thus made, when the exposed parts of the plate will be corroded or etched away until sufficient depth is obtained. These are, of course, but the bare outlines of the process, yet they will suffice to illustrate the facility and simplicity of its operations.