Antique Landscape Engraving Artwork

Engraving is one of the oldest and most important techniques in printmaking.

Engraving was a historically important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking, and also for commercial reproductions and illustrations for books and magazines. Partly because of the difficulty of learning the technique, is today much less common in printmaking, where it has been largely replaced by etching, photography and other techniques.

How it works: Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustrations; these images are also called “engravings”.

Engraving is also loosely but incorrectly used for any old black and white print; it requires a degree of expertise to distinguish engravings from prints using other techniques such as etching in particular. Many old master prints also combine techniques on the same plate, further confusing matters.