Print collector's quarterly (6.1916)

And now one more remark-and I am done. In his
exhaustive essay, Mr. Hind refers to the nail-holes in
the E plates as follows: “Generally speaking, as in the
case of nielli, one may infer from such holes, that a
plate was to be attached or had at some time been at-
tached, to some other material in some decorative
setting. This scarcely seems a rational explanation in
the case of the present engravings and it is practically
certain that the holes were made to fix the plate on a
wood block for convenience in printing, as was done
with the white-line metal cuts, Schrotbldtter. This would
of course imply that the method of printing copper-
plates at this date in Italy was still rudimentary, as we
know to have been the case from the weak and broken
character of the line in many early Italian prints.”
Let us look at this matter from the practical side. The
mounting of relief plates, dotted prints (Schrotbldtter')
or any other, might well be a convenience, since the
added weight of the block would prevent the plate
from jumping and moving while the surface was being-
inked with clabbers. This mounting was necessary,
furthermore, when plates were to be printed together
with type in order to insure an even height for type and
picture. This does not, however, apply to intaglio
printing. The printing of intaglio plates, engravings for
instance such as these Tarocchi plates, in any form or
manner is not facilitated, but impeded, by such mount-
ing on a wooden foundation. Speaking under correc-
tion, I would submit that at the period of the Tarocchi
engravings, synchronous, as Mr. Hind tells us, with the
Prophet and Sibyl series of Florence, rudimentary forms
of intaglio printing must have been more or less a thing
of the past. The perfection of these impressions, clear,

85