Etching - Printing of the Seventeenth Century

The prominent printing technique of the seventeenth century is a process known as etching. An etching needle is used to draw into a wax ground applied over a metal plate. The plate is then submerged in a series of acid baths, each biting into the metal surface only where unprotected by the ground. The ground is removed, ink is forced into the etched depressions, the unetched surfaces wiped, and an impression is printed. Also, both the design etched on a plate and an impression made from an etched plate. This process was taken by storm when artists found that etching was more manageable than engraving.…