Coloured engravings

The printing process used by Loggan, Le Keux, Storer and others, etching a copper or steel plate, produces black and white images. These may be coloured by hand, either in a contemporary fashion, or much later. Generally the colouring is neither signed nor dated, and the artist may never have seen the original scene, so the colours chosen, particularly for clothes, may vary between different coloured prints. Below are shown two pictures of the Old Hall of Queens' College (before its rather colourful Victorian redecoration), one original from Le Keux's Memorials of Cambridge (1845 edition), and one hand coloured.

Clicking on either will result in an enlarged image.

Queens' Old Hall, Le Keux

Queens' Old Hall, Le Keux

The coloured image also shows a degree of "foxing" (patches of reddish-brown discolouring of the paper, particularly noticeable on the ceiling to the left of the chandelier). Whilst both images have been enhanced to reduce the effects of aging, this is much easier with the uncoloured image in which everything should be either black or white.

The original image is about 5.5"x3.75".

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