engraving

An illustration from A Christmas Carol, by English novelist Charles Dickens, in a hand-coloured engraving by English engraver John Leech. In this, Scrooge receives his third visitor, the ghost of Christmas past, who reminds him of happier times. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843.

A 16th-century engraving of the tournament to celebrate the marriage of Philip II of Spain to Isabella, daughter of Henry II of France. It was in this tournament that Henry received the wounds from which he subsequently died. In wars against England and against the Holy Roman Empire, Henry had succeeded in expanding his country.

Art of creating a design by means of inscribing blocks of metal, wood, or some other hard material with a point. With intaglio printing the design is cut into the surface of a plate, usually metal. It is these cuts, often very fine, which hold the ink. In relief printing, by contrast, it is the areas left when the rest has been cut away which are inked for printing. See printmaking.