A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . 816,* from old blocks collected by the Baron Von Derschau, thereare several to which the editor, Zacharias Becker, assigns an earlier datethan the year 1500. It is not unlikely that two or three of those in hisoldest class, A, may have been executed previous to that period ; butthere are others in which bad drawing and rude engraving have beenmistaken for indubitable proofs of antiquity. There are also two orthree in the same class which I strongly suspect to be modern would appear from a circumstance mentioned in Dr. Dibd
A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . 816,* from old blocks collected by the Baron Von Derschau, thereare several to which the editor, Zacharias Becker, assigns an earlier datethan the year 1500. It is not unlikely that two or three of those in hisoldest class, A, may have been executed previous to that period ; butthere are others in which bad drawing and rude engraving have beenmistaken for indubitable proofs of antiquity. There are also two orthree in the same class which I strongly suspect to be modern would appear from a circumstance mentioned in Dr. Dibdins Biblio-graphical Tour,t and referred to at page 236 of the present work, thatthe Baron was a person from whose collection copper-plate engravings ofquestionable date had proceeded as well as wood-blocks. The followingis a reduced copy of one of those suspicious blocks, but which theeditor considers to be of an earlier date than the St. Christopher in thecollection of Earl Spencer. I am however of opinion that it is ofcomparatively modern The inscription, intended for old German, at the bottom of the cut,is literally as follows : Hiet uch, vor den Katczen dy vorn lecken unde * The title of this work is : Holzschnitte alter Deutscher Meister in den Original-Plattcngesammelt von Hans Albrecht Von Derschau. Als ein Beytrag zur Kunstgeschichte heraus-gegeben, und mit einer Abhandlung iiber die Holzschneidekunst begleitet, von RudolphZacharias Becker. It is in large folio, with the text in German and French. The first partwas published at Gotha in 1808; the second in 1810 ; and the third in 1816. t Vol. iii. p. 445, edit. 1829. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PRESS. 227 Mnden kraiczen—that is : Beware of the cats that lick before andscratch behind. It is rather singular that the editor—who describesthe subject as a cat which appears to teach her kitten le Jeu deSouris —Should not have informed his readers that more was meantby this inscription than met the eye, and that
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectwoodengraving, bookye
