This website contains a catalogue of just over 5,000 hand coloured intaglio art prints, individually printed from the original, mostly antique, etched copper and steel plates.

These represent some of the finest traditional art prints available today, being true archival quality etchings and engravings taken from the original steel and copper plates, printed on custom made acid-free heavy weight paper with many being hand coloured to a very high standard.

The collective term for these art prints is 'Intaglio' (an Italian word meaning to incise or inscribe). This is one of the most traditional ways of creating fine art prints and many experts agree it is still the most satisfying. The richness and depth of tone, together with the knowledge that each print has been individually hand made, sets apart this work from other types of print available today.

These larger art prints are ideal as decorative prestige Christmas gifts where a lasting quality and distinction are of importance, they are also suitable as gifts for weddings, retirement or other special occasions. They are also ideal for the home or office when quality is needed, above that provided by a normal lithographic fine art print.

Most of these prints are restrikes from the world's largest collection of original plates, the vast majority over 100 years old, and have been printed using traditional methods and materials by Thomas Ross Ltd. in the United Kingdom.

Restrikes use the same plates as the original, but are second-generation prints made after the original run. The time between an original pull from a plate and a restrike can range anywhere from a month to several centuries.
While usually less desirable than originals, restrikes are sometimes the only prints from the original plates that are available, or for that matter, affordable.

These restrikes are not to be confused with the normal type of 'fine art' prints that are widely available from many galleries or poster stores, which are generally lithographs produced at varying levels of quality and printed on a modern type of paper, often not of archival quality. The subtle look and feel of a genuine intaglio art print, on fine paper along with it's plate mark just cannot be reproduced using modern methods. The traditional museum quality method of production ensures these will far outlast normal fine art prints.

See the links above under 'About these prints' to see in detail how the prints are made.

Above - printing the traditional way at Thomas Ross Ltd.
(This takes about 20 minutes for each large print)

© 2003-2020 Website copyright Steve Bartrick, Images Copyright Thomas Ross Limited
Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited

Steve Bartrick Antique Prints and Maps