Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or
St. Jerome in His Study (1514), engraving by Northern Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer
Artist and engraver Chaim Goldberg at work
An assortment of hand engraving tools
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other ch
Engraving
…applications and, partly because of the difficulty of learning the technique, is much less common in printmaking, where it has been largely replaced by etching and other techniques. "Engraving" is loosely but incorrectly used for any old black and white print; it requires a degree of expertise to distinguish…
The Soldier and his Wife. Etching by Daniel Hopfer, who is believed to have been the first to apply the technique to printmaking.
The etched carnelian beads in this necklace from the Royal Cemetery of Ur dating to the First Dynasty of Ur (2600-2500 BCE) were probably imported from the Indus Valley.
Self-portrait etched by Wenceslaus Hollar
Selection of early etched printing plates from the British Museum