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• line engraving
  line engraving

  noun

  a technique of engraving in which all effects are produced by variations in the width and density of lines incised with a burin.
• line-engraving
  line-engraving

  noun

  the art or process of hand-engraving in intaglio and copper plate

line engraving

American  

noun

1. a technique of engraving in which all effects are produced by variations in the width and density of lines incised with a burin.

2. a metal plate so engraved.

3. a print or picture made from it.

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line-engraving British  

noun

1. the art or process of hand-engraving in intaglio and copper plate

2. a plate so engraved

3. a print taken from such a plate

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Other Word Forms

• line engraver
  noun
• line-engraver
  noun

Etymology

Origin of line engraving

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

line engraving line-engraving

He gave it last week to Thomas W. Nason of Reading, Mass. for a finicky line engraving of two hayricks, a barn, a dying oak tree.

From Time Magazine Archive

It appeared as though line engraving could not keep pace with the ever-growing demand for pictures, and was therefore combined with stipple to facilitate production.

From Engraving for Illustration Historical and Practical Notes by Joseph Kirkbride

Absolutely, an immense disadvantage,—a woodcut never can be so beautiful or good a thing as a painting, or line engraving.

From Ariadne Florentina Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving by John Ruskin

But while some of them have been excellent of their kind, the process is of limited resource, and the best works in this manner do not compare with the masterpieces of line engraving.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various

If it failed artistically to measure up to line engraving or to plank woodcut, this was not the fault of the process but of the popular reproductive ends which it almost invariably served.

From Why Bewick Succeeded A Note in the History of Wood Engraving by Jacob Kainen

As a work of art, we repeat, this is beyond question the finest instance of line-engraving yet executed on this continent.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 by Various

To my eye it explains Mr. Lincoln far more than the most elaborate line-engraving which has been produced.

From McClure's Magazine December, 1895 by Ida M. Tarbell

The formal style of art, the essence of line-engraving, reached its zenith in Albrecht Dürer.

From Rembrandt, With a Complete List of His Etchings by Arthur Mayger Hind

In the one case the composer desired to have a beautiful weaving of the parts—clear as the lines in a line-engraving.

From Music Talks with Children by Thomas Tapper

Technically one of these arts, that of line-engraving on copper, sprang from the craft of the goldsmith and metal-chaser; while that of wood-engraving sprang from the craft of the printers of pattern-blocks and playing cards.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 8 "Dubner" to "Dyeing" by Various