LALLANNE ON ETCHING.* IT is a curious fact that though

the art of etching has received' so great an impulse of late years, and that most artists of eminence have, at all events, tried their hands at the etching needle and the copper, there has been written concerning it scarcely one

-authoritative and exhaustive handbook. Mr. Hamerton's Etching and Etchers, though a large, handsome volume, full of valuable information and interesting illustrations, by no means supplies the want of which we speak, and is rather an -essay on the scope and history of etching, than a guide to its practice. The same author's smaller work, which is professedly -devoted to teaching the technique of the art, contains singu-

larly little which is calculated to smooth the path of the student, and chiefly consists of a brief enumeration of the various methods which are employed by etchers. Besides which, Mr. Hamerton's work bears with it that suspicion of amateurish- ness which always accompanies the efforts of one who is not himself a thorough master of his craft to instruct students in its -technical details. For Mr. Hamerton is only an etcher, as it were, incidentally, in the intervals of editing and literature ; and though this would not matter if he produced work of very first- rate quality, it does matter a good deal when his etching is at best second-rate. The little book by Mr. Seymour Haden entitled "Notes on Etching" comes to us with all the authority that Mr. Hamerton's writing lacks, but by no means fulfils the- purpose of a handbook. It is pleasantly if somewhat authoritatively written gossip on the craft and its professors, teeming with sharply-constructed sentences about Art and Man, and impressed throughout with a sort of transcendental practicality. There is more " stuff " in it with regard to the Art than perhaps in all that Mr. Hamerton has written, but it does not condescend to details, and it is somewhat marred through- .out by being written with an evident bias against' engraving, as contrasted with etching, and an endeavour to force etching up- wards to a rank in the world of Art which it cannot really attain.

With this exception, we are not aware that there has been any notable publication on etching of late years, which em- braced the practice of the Art as well as its history, and it is therefore with considerable pleasure that we welcome the book before us, which exactly supplies what is most needed.

M. Maxime Lallanne, of whose treatise the volume is a trans- lation, is one of the first of living French etchers, and in every sense a master of his art, down to its remotest detail. The book is badly arranged in some ways, and by no means too well translated, but it is in all essential respects a very valuable one. It omits no detail, and it deals with nearly every difficulty by which a young etcher could be puzzled. Most valuable of all, as every practical student of the art will allow, is its account of, -and remedies for, all the mistakes to which beginners are liable; -and this part of the work is especially full and clear, and enters into the causes as well as the remedies of the various errors.

The book has been translated by a Mr. Koehler (apparently a German resident in Boston), and is disfigured by a good many Americanisms of spelling ; and the translator has added an introductory chapter and explanatory notes, which he in- forms us were first designed for the instruction of an American public. The reason of these appearing in the English edition is probably that the work was pub- lished from the same proof-sheets in America and Eng-

land, a practice which is now becoming pretty common with some English publishers, and which has the effect of

saving them expense at the cost of the public. Of course, it does not do the young English etcher any actual harm to be told to take a clean earthenware pot, glazed on the inside, with a handle to it, and to be informed that such pots are to be bought for "fifteen cents, at G. A. Miller and Co.'s, 101 Shaw-

• Etching. By Maxime Lallanne. Translated by S. R. Koehler. London: Pawpson Law and Co.

mnt Avenue, Boston," though it is undoubtedly productive of a vague feeling of irritation ; but all these little details of lan- guage, nationality, and translation do not really matter much

in a work which is professedly only a text-book. Looked at for that purpose, we repeat that it is, in our opinion, not only the

best, but the only good handbook of etching which is at pre- sent published in England ; and it has this further advantage over previous publications,—that it has not been published under the auspices of an artist's colourman, whose wares it was bound to advertise.

It is difficult to give an illustration of M. Lallanne's instruc- tion which shall not be tedious to the reader, but perhaps the following extract, describing the manner in which the etching- ground is laid upon the copper, will serve to give an idea of the minuteness of his instructions, and the clearness with which they are delivered. It must be premised that all the technical instruction in the work is delivered in the form of a lecture from a master-etcher to a young pupil :-

" You have here a plate, I say to him; I clean it with turpentine; then, having well wiped it with a piece of fine linen and having still further cleaned it by rubbing it with Spanish white (or whiting), I fasten it into the vice by one of its edges*, taking care to place a tolerably thick piece of paper under the teeth of the vice, so as to protect the copper against injury. I now hold the plate with its back over this chafing•dish ; but a piece of burning paper, or the flame of a spirit lamp, will do equally well. As soon as the plate is sufficiently heatedt I place upon its polished surface this ball of ordinary etching-ground, wrapped in a piece of plain taffeta ; the heat causes the ground to melt. If the plate is too hot, the ground commences to boil while melting; in that case, we must allow the plate to cool somewhat, as otherwise the ground will be burned. I pass the ball over the whole surface of the copper, taking care not to overcharge the plate with the ground. Then with the dabber I dab it in all directions ; at first vigorously and quickly, so as to spread and equalise the layer of varnish ; and finally, as the varnish cools, I apply the dabber more delicately. The appearance of inequalities and little protruding points in the ground indicates that it is laid on too thick, and the dabbing must be continued until we have obtained a perfectly homogeneous layer. This must be very thin, sufficient to resist strong biting, and yet allowing the point to draw the very finest lines, which it will be difficult to do with too much varnish."

The above is a fair specimen of M. Lallanne's instructions, and seems to us singularly minute and concise, saying all that is needed in the clearest way. With regard to the rest of the book, M..Lallanne enters at length into the various processes, the manner of treating a plate at the various stages of its pro- gress, and gives many explanatory etchings, of which we need only say that they are well calculated to answer their purpose. There is a theory as to the relative quickness of the biting of lines which are near together and those which are far apart, upon which much of M. Lallanne's own practice depends, and which he was the first to enunciate clearly ; but this is not the place to enter upon so technical a matter, and we need only, in conclusion, repeat our opinion (which is one based upon a

practical knowledge of the art and its requirements) that this work is, from its own point of view, i.e., as a handbook,

thoroughly useful and trustworthy.