Holbein's Dance of death : exhibited in elegant engravings on wood ; also, Holbein's Bible cuts : consisting of ninety illustrations on wood / with a dissertation on the several representations of that subject by Francis Douce ; with introduction by Thos. Frognall Dibdin.

  • Douce, Francis, 1757-1834.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Holbein's Dance of death : exhibited in elegant engravings on wood ; also, Holbein's Bible cuts : consisting of ninety illustrations on wood / with a dissertation on the several representations of that subject by Francis Douce ; with introduction by Thos. Frognall Dibdin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Humphreys in 1868 ; and for the Holbein Society in 1879. ^'^ 1886, Dr. F. Lippmann edited for Mr. Quaritch a set of reproductions of the engraver's proofs in the Berlin Museum ; and the editio princeps has been facsimiled by one of the modern processes for Hirth of Munich, as vol. x. of the Liebhaber- Bibliothek, 1884. The copies given in the present issue are impres- sions from the blocks engraved in 1833 for ^j^^ Douce's Holbein's Dance of Death. They are present the best imitations in wood, says Mr. Linton. It is of course true, as he also points out, that a copy with the graver can never quite faithfully follow an original which has been cut with the knife,—more espe- cially, it may be added, when the cutter is a supreme craftsman like him of Luxemburg. But against etched, lithographed, phototyped and otherwise-processed copies, these of Messrs. Bonner and John By field have one incontestable advantage :—they are honest at- tempts to repeat by the same method,—that is, in wood,—the original and incomparable woodcuts of Hans Lutzelburger.