Developmental prints for reproducing Veronese’s “The Vision of St. Helena”

Charles William Sherborn (1831–1912) and Lumb Stocks (1812–1892)

Three progressive stages/states on different plates and by different artist in creating the print, “The Vision of St. Helena” after Paolo Veronese (aka. Paolo Caliari and, as lettered in this plate, Paul Veronese) (1528–1588).

Plate 1 (representing stage/state 1) by Lumb Stocks, etching (photogravure?) on cream wove paper, published in 1882 by Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, of London, in Hamerton's “The Graphics Arts”, (sheet) 30.7 x 21.2 cm, (plate with squared corners) 25.5 x 15.9 cm, (image borderline) 21.8 x 12.7 cm

Plate 2 (representing stage/state 2) signed in the plate (lower right) by Lumb Stocks, etching with engraving (photogravure?) on cream wove paper, published in 1882 by Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, of London, in Hamerton's “The Graphics Arts”, (sheet) 30.7 x 21.2 cm, (plate with rounded corners) 25.5 x 16 cm, (image borderline) 21.8 x 12.7 cm

Plate 3 (representing stage/state 3) lettered with publication details and with the artist’s name in the plate (lower centre) by Charles William Sherborn, etching with engraving on cream wove paper, (sheet) 32.3 x 23.7 cm, the image is trimmed for publication in “Art Journal” (1884) without platemark, (image borderline) 27.2 x 16.3 cm

Condition: crisp impressions in very good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, folds or significant stains but the sheets have age toning and there are light marks).

I am selling these three original prints (the first two are most likely photogravures) showing the developmental stages in creating a print for publication for a total cost of AU$160 (currently US$122.76/EUR110.69/GBP98.40 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are y interested in purchasing this exceptionally rare set of prints, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

I hope that these prints are self-explanatory in the sense that they represent the three stages in preparing a print for publication.

The first stage is to etch the design as a guide for the next step of engraving. Artists usually begin a plate with etching as it is quicker than engraving.

The second stage is to add engraved strokes to “soften” and model the forms portrayed. A simple way to determine which lines are etched and which are engraved is to look at the start and finish of a stroke. Etched lines are usually “square-ended” whereas engraved lines tend to be tapered.

The third stage is to add publication details. This information is usually arranged below the image borderline with details about the title and publisher lettered at the centre, the artist who designed the image shown on the left and the artist who executed the print shown on the right.

Interestingly, there were exactly three states in Sherborn’s published print and these details may be found in Charles Davies Sherborn’s (1912) “A Sketch of the Life and Work of Charles William Sherborn”, p. 29.