Collection: Antique Stipple Engravings

Its invention is credited to William Ryland, who first used the technique in 1774. Ryland was an engraver to George III. It is a printing technique, using a mixture of etching and engraving, in which the design is made up of countless small dots or flecks, producing softly graded tones. It became extremely popular in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries  when it was often used in conjunction with the crayon manner, from which it derived. Stipple engraving was more popular in England than anywhere else, where Francesco Bartolozzi was probably the most famous exponent. Towards the end of the 18th Century, some printmakers, including Bartolozzi, began to use colour in stipple engraving. Rather than using separate plates for each colour, the different colours were carefully applied with a brush to a single plate for each impression, a very skilled and time consuming operation which was quickly realised to be to be far too expensive.