Old English colour prints

An illustrated study surveys the production, aesthetics, and marketing of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English colour-printed engravings, describing techniques such as stipple and mezzotint, the roles of printmakers, publishers and collectors, and the common subjects of portraiture, theatrical scenes, rustic and urban genre pictures including the Cries of London. Prefatory notes and detailed plate descriptions accompany reproductions and technical observations on printing and colouring, emphasizing the prints' visual appeal and their place within collecting and connoisseurship.