line engraving

The bed was perfectly plain, with no curtains and but a head-board, a mattress, looking as hard as the ground, and a very singular portrait, over the head, of a gentleman, in line-engraving, which does not intellectualize the contour.

Engraving, known variously under the name of copper-plate printing, engraving in taille-douce, and line-engraving, produces the finest stamps figuring in our collections.

See also the lists of works given under the separate headings for Line-engraving, Etching, Mezzotint and Wood-engraving.

Of these four varieties of engraving—line-engraving, etching, mezzotint or wood-engraving—the woodcut is historically the earliest.

Line-engraving is now practically obsolete, while etching and mezzotint have recently come more and more to the front.