Abraham BOSSE (1602/4 - 1676): Les Imprimeurs en taille-douce - 1642

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[The Intaglio Printmakers]

Etching, 325 x 260 mm. Préaud 204; Blum 205; Lothe 254.

Very fine impression of the only state, printed on laid watermarked paper (watermark: arms with fleurs-de-lys).

Very good condition. Fine, almost invisible printing crease. Slight spotting on verso along upper and lower edges of leaf. Small margins around the platemark (sheet: 395 x 303 mm).

The Intaglio printmakers is one of the most famous prints by Abraham Bosse. He was then working on his important Traité des manières de graver en taille-douce sur l'airain par le moyen des eaux-fortes et des vernis durs et mols. Ensemble de la façon d'en imprimer les planches et d'en construire les presses [A Treatise on the methods of intaglio printmaking, to etch images on copper by means of acids as well as hard and soft grounds, together with an explanation of the manner of printing such plates and of building presses], for which he obtained a privilege in 1642 and which he published in Paris in 1645. It was the first technical manual of intaglio printmaking. It was a huge success, and was translated and widely disseminated in the following years in Germany, in the Netherlands and in England; it was reprinted several times, with additions by Sebastien Leclerc and then by Charles-Nicolas Cochin in the XVIIIth century.

The Intaglio Printmakers, or more accurately Cette figure [qui] vous montre Comme on Imprime les planches de taille douce [This Image [which] Shows How Intaglio Plates are Printed] and that of Graveurs en taille douce au Burin et à Leaue forte [The Engraver and the Etcher], etched one year later, stem from the same pedagogical objective. The letter reads: "This figure shows you how intaglio plates are printed / The ink is made of burnt walnut oil and wine black, of which the best comes from Germany. The printer takes some of this ink with a cloth pad, inks his plate while it is somewhat hot [see at the bottom left], wipes it lightly with other cloth(s), and finishes cleaning it with the palm of his hand [see left]. Once this is done, he puts this plate upside down on the table of his press, applies on it a sheet of paper soaked and then let rest for a while, and covers it with another sheet of paper and one or two pieces of cloth, then pulling the arms of his press, he pushes the table with the plate between two rollers." (Préaud, p. 226, translated by us)

References: Maxime Préaud, Sophie Join-Lambert (dir.), Abraham Bosse, savant graveur, Paris, 2004. José Lothe, L’œuvre gravé d’Abraham Bosse, Paris, 2008.