In the mid-eighteenth century, London was the undisputed center of the print trade for the English-speaking world, with images pouring forth by the thousands each year from dozens of publishing houses. The publishers kept a veritable army of designers and engravers employed making prints at every price point and for every possible purpose, from inexpensive illustrated song sheets and advertising images, to book illustrations, to high-style printed versions of famous paintings and drawings.

This drawing is a fascinating and almost unique survival from the process of making such a high-style print in the eighteenth century. The sheet contains a quickly sketched-up outline of a scene copied from a painting by Francis Hayman. The painting was once part of the decorations for a dining pavilion at Vauxhall Gardens, a sort of amusement park for adults in suburban London. But the drawing was not the final product. Instead, it represents an intermediate step between painting and print, for it was meant to help the engraver transfer the image to a copper plate.

This drawing was probably one of several almost identical sheets, each of which would have been rubbed with chalk on the back. The engraver would then use the drawings sort of like carbon paper, going over the lines on the front with a stylus to transfer the design to the surface of the copper plate. The back of this sheet is covered with chalk in the area of the seated woman’s dress, suggesting that it was used as a template for that part of the print. When the lines were transferred to the copper plate, which was also probably covered with chalk and shellac, the engraver could follow them with an engraving tool or etching needle to create the lines in the copper.

The very survival of this drawing is remarkable, for nearly all works like this were destroyed in the process of being used. Perhaps this one was a first, false start, or the artists changed their minds about the patterns to be engraved on the dress. Whatever the reason for the drawing's survival, it is precious witness to and survival of a process that was so common that no one ever thought to preserve evidence of how it was done.

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