Chapter XVI: Letter XI (5)

[175] I will describe this singular specimen of old art as briefly and
perspicuously as I am able. It consists of an impression, in pale
black ink--resembling very much that of aquatint, of a subject cut
upon copper, or brass, which is about seventeen inches in height (the
top being a little cut away) and about ten inches six-eighths in
width. The upper part of the impression is in the shape of an obtusely
pointed, or perhaps rather semicircular, gothic window--and is filled
by involutions of forms or patterns, with great freedom of play and
grace of composition: resembling the stained glass in the upper parts
of the more elaborated gothic windows of the beginning of the
fifteenth century. Round the outer border of the subject, there are
seven white circular holes, as if the metal from which the impression
was taken, had been _nailed up_ against a wall--and these blank
spots were the result of the aperture caused by the space formerly
occupied by the nails. Below, is the subject of the crucifixion. The
cross is ten inches high: the figure of Christ, without the glory, six
inches: St. John is to the left, and the mother of Christ to the right
of the cross; and each of these figures is about four inches high. The
drawing and execution of these three figures, are barbarously puerile.
To the left of St. John is a singular appearance of the _upper_
part of _another_ plate, running at right angles with the
principal, and composed also in the form of the upper portion of a
gothic window. To the right of the virgin, and of the plate, is the
"staggering" date abovementioned. It is thus: M.cccc.xxx. This date is
fixed upon the stem of a tree, of which both the stem and the branches
above appear to have been _scraped_, in the copper, almost
_white_--for the sake of introducing the inscription, or
_date_. The date, moreover, has a very suspicious look, in regard
to the execution of the letters of which it is composed. As to the
_paper_, upon which the impression is taken, it has, doubtless,
much of the look of old paper; but not of that particular kind, either
in regard to _tone_ or _quality_, which we see in the prints
of Mechlin, Schoen, or Albert Durer. But what gives a more "staggering
aspect" to the whole affair is, that the worthy Derschau had
_another_ copy of this _same_ impression, which he sold to Mr.
John Payne, and which is now in the highly curious collection of Mr.
Douce. This was fortunate, to say the least. The copy purchased by
myself, is now in the collection of Earl Spencer.

[176] I should add, that the _dotted_ manner of executing this old
print, may be partly seen in that at page 280 of vol. iii. of the
second edition of this work; but still more decidedly in the old
prints pasted within the covers of the extraordinary copy of the
_Mazarine Bible_, UPON VELLUM, once in the possession of Messrs.
Nicol, booksellers to his late Majesty, and now in that of Henry
Perkins, Esq.

[177] _Travels in Lower Hungary_, 1818, 4to. p.93.

[178] _Buchhandler_ is bookseller: and _Antiquar_ a dealer in
old books. In Nuremberg, families exist for centuries in the same
spot. I.A. ENDTER, one of the principal booksellers, resides in a
house which his family have occupied since the year 1590. My
intercourse was almost entirely with M. Lechner--one of the most
obliging and respectable of his fraternity at Nuremberg.

[179] [Now of Henrietta Street Covent Garden. As is a sturdy oak, of
three centuries growth, compared with a sapling of the last season's
transplanting, so is the business of Mr. Bohn, NOW, compared with what
it was when the _above_ notice was written.]

[180] It is either 1607, or 1609.

[181] The reputation of the University of Heidelberg, which may contain
500 students, greatly depends upon that of the professors. The
students are generally under twenty years of age. Their dress and
general appearance is very picturesque. The shirt collar is open, the
hair flowing, and a black velvet hat or cap, of small and square
dimensions, placed on one side, gives them a very knowing air. One
young man in particular, scarcely nineteen from his appearance,
displayed the most beautiful countenance and figure which I had ever
beheld. He seemed to be _Raphael_ or _Vandyke_ revived.

[182] See note at page 49-51.

[183] Since March 1819, called the firm of ARTARIA and FONTAINE.

[184] Among the prints recently imported from the _latter_ place,
was the whole length of the DUKE OF WELLINGTON, engraved by Bromley,
from the painting of Sir Thomas Lawrence. I was surprised when M.
Artaria told me that he had sold _fifty copies_ of this print--to
his Bavarian and Austrian customers. In a large line engraving, of the
Meeting of the Sovereigns and Prince Schwartzenberg, after the battle
of Leipsic--from the painting of P. Krafft--and published by Artaria
and Fontaine in January 1820--it is gratifying to read the name of our
SCOTT--as that of the engraver of the piece--although it had been
_previously_ placed in other hands.

[185] [It was brought to England about three years ago, and is YET, I
believe, a purchasable article in some Repository. It should at least
be _seen_ by the whole tribe of COGNOSCENTI in Pall Mall.]

[186] See page 439.

[187] The town is said to abound with Roman antiquities; among which is a
triumphal arch of the time of Augustus, and an arcade called the
_Romulus_. It was at Rheims where the holy _ampoule_, or
oil for consecrating the Kings of France was kept--who were usually
crowned here. A Jacobin ruffian, of the name of _Ruht_, destroyed
this ampoule during the revolution. This act was succeeded by his own
self-destruction.

[188] CHRISTMAS CAROL: printed by Wynkyn De Worde, 1521, 4to. see
_Typog. Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 251.

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICOL, AT THE

Shakspeare Press,

Cleveland Row, St. James's.