(6) Vintage French Colored Etchings. Lot comprised of six matched early 19th Century French color etchings depicting children at various activities. Each piece titled but unattributed. All in matching frames. 

Overall: 10 5/8 x 12 1/4 in. 

Sight: 6 x 7 7/8 in. 

#4246 . 

Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing other chemicals may be used on other types of material. As a method of printmaking it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of modern variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in modern technology, including circuit boards. In traditional pure etching, a metal plate (usually of copper, zinc or steel) is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle where the artist wants a line to appear in the finished piece, exposing the bare metal. The échoppe, a tool with a slanted oval section, is also used for “swelling” lines. The plate is then dipped in a bath of acid, known as the mordant (French for “biting”) or etchant, or has acid washed over it. The acid “bites” into the metal as it undergoes a redox reaction to a depth depending on time and acid strength, leaving behind the drawing (as carved into the wax) on the metal plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. For first and renewed uses the plate is inked in any chosen non-corrosive ink all over and the surface ink drained and wiped clean, leaving ink in the etched forms. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a softened sheet of paper. The paper picks up the ink from the etched lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times, and typically several hundred impressions (copies) could be printed before the plate shows much sign of wear. The work on the plate can be added to or repaired by re-waxing and further etching, and etching has often been combined with other intaglio techniques such as Rembrandt’s engravings or Francisco Goya’s aquatints. So common was the process by the early 20th Century that it was still a frequent reference in vernacular around the world, with the narrator of Dashiell Hammett’s 1934 novel “The Thin Man” placating his suspicious wife about another woman by saying, “She just wanted to show me some French etchings.” In the late 20th and now the 21st Century, etching is still a useful process, although lithography and digital printing have overtaken it in popularity, and antique and vintage etchings are now primarily sought by collectors for their historical value.