Well, it is as if they still had the workshop set up, the materials and tools at hand, and a basic knowledge of the techniques involved, but some how the desire or ability to do the work well had left the building. Note the choppy feel of the engraving, the uneven, ‘hacked-in’ look to it and the niello, miscuts and poor stops and starts everywhere; the lack of definition between the foreground and background; uneven depth of the background and lack of care in background texture – it is as if the master of the shop had died unexpectedly and a first or second year apprentice was left in charge, but he had a drinking problem and a hot date set up that evening so he was really just not paying attention…or maybe it is just the last gasp of a dying tradition, when even those who had devoted their lives to it had finally realized the ultimate futility of hand work in the machine age?
