CORNELIS PLOOS VAN AMSTEL
1729 Dublin – 1765 London
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Town-Crier – 1776
Etching and roulette in Ploos van Amstel’s technique on laid paper attached to a contemporary album sheet with drawn framing lines. After Cornelis Dusart (Dutch, 1660 - 1704). From a series of forty-six fascimilies “Ectypa”. Size of sheet: 19.8 x 15.2 cm. Verso. Coat of arms of Ploos van Amstel in crayon-manner in Ploos van Amstel’s technique (Lugt 2034). Published by Bernhard Schreuder.
T. Laurentius, J.W. Niemeijer and G. Ploos van Amstel, 'Cornelis Ploos van Amstel 1726-1798, Kunstverzamelaar en Prentuitgever', Assen, 1980, p.268, no.29; Hollstein 64.
The drawing by Dusart is in the Schlossmuseum, Schwerin.
Comparative impressions: The BM – inv.1856,0712.148.
£380.-
Cornelis Ploos Van Amstel after Dusart: Town-Crier, 1776
“The crowning craft of Ploos van Amstel was his contribution to the development of printing techniques, particularly with regard to the use of colour. Some sources claim he invented a new printing technique; however, it is more accurate to say that he used existing techniques in a new way. His unique achievement was to print in colour mechanically and also to provide his audience with artworks on paper that bore an uncanny resemblance to the original. His aim, in which he was extremely successful, was to create highly accurate replicas of existing artistic media for those who could not afford originals to purchase. These replicas reproduced the original textures, whether it was watercolour, chalk, pencil or Indian ink”.
(Joanna Reed, 2020; retrieved from https://aberystwythuniversitycollections.wordpress.com/2020/07/20/why-was-cornelis-ploos-van-amstel-famous-in-the-18th-century-but-relatively-unknown-in-the-21st-century-joanna-reed/)