|
"The Golden hours, on angel wings,
Flew
o'er me and my dearie;
For dear to me, as light and
life;
Was
my sweet Highland Mary."
Some may suggest that the above line, stip-ple & etched engraving, by A..B.
Dick, after the Massey painting, is a little more refined ( the print is larger, 5 5/8" x 4 1/4", than the mezzotint
). While it is definitely more skill-full than the Gimbrede engraving on the first page, when you actually lay these two prints
together, side by side, both have equal ap-peal and it would be this side of impossible to say which is the more technically
accom-plished. I will say the add-ed Burn's verse to the above engraving helps, but visually I really could not choose which
the better. Above rendering was published by the "La-dies Companion", Cincinnatii,
Ohio, 1840.
 ...and although the above line & stipple, nearly twice as large as the mezzotint, may
be a little more refined and technically accu-rate in depicting the original Wright painting, both prints are about equal
in market value, as mezzotints, provided they are done well, are generally more rare than line & stipple engravings.
When the technical arguments come this close they are rendered moot as the ultimate value is resolved by the buyer's
choice.
...although this blowup of the Gimbrede is a larger, more restricted area of the print, the
figurative form is clearly not as well execut-ed as the figures in the A.B. Dick line & stip-ple.
It is no accident that Sartain is regarded among the best of only a handful of 19th century
American mezzotintists, and the value of any academic work of art is gener-ally dependent
more on the comparative skill of the artist rather than the age or con-dition of the work. The
intuitive skills of the experienced collector can usually discern these differences.
Click links to navigate pages :
|
