Copperplate engraving is an intaglio printmaking technique in which an image is cut into a polished copper plate with a sharp steel tool called a burin. Ink is rubbed into the incised lines, the surface is wiped clean and damp paper is pressed against the plate under great pressure, so that the ink is drawn out of the grooves to form the printed image.
The method developed in Germany and Italy in the fifteenth century and remained the principal way of reproducing pictures, maps, portraits, architectural plans and book illustrations until the nineteenth century. Engraved lines have a crisp, swelling quality, and tone is built up through cross-hatching and stippling. A copperplate print usually shows a plate mark, the indentation left by the edges of the plate, and a fine early impression will have strong, rich lines, while later impressions from a worn plate look weaker. From the 1820s harder steel plates largely replaced copper for large editions. Collectors consider the quality of impression, margins, condition, colouring and rarity. The term also gave its name to the flowing copperplate handwriting style, modelled on engraved writing manuals of the eighteenth century.
