Trade card for J. Dallinger, Engraver and Copper Plate Printer 1800 - 1900

Curator: This is a trade card for J. Dallinger, an engraver and copper plate printer operating sometime between 1800 and 1900. It's an etching and engraving. The card, boasting their services, is held at The Met in New York. Editor: My initial reaction is pure craft. The delicacy, the precision... I imagine Dallinger poring over these plates. It feels a world away from our screen-printed, mass-produced everything. Curator: The whole card is just layers of labour, isn't it? Even the cherubs at the top, busily engaging in different stages of graphic reproduction. The etching suggests printmaking is child's play. Editor: It's genius. Marketing and social commentary intertwined. Look how the image on the trade card subtly positions hand production as something touched by cherubs or even fairies. But behind every magical engraving, there is a work process. It’s calling my attention to the making of the printed ephemera as its focus. Curator: And look at the bottom half of the image—the little vignette of Norwich, a boat drifting down the river. There is so much local pride distilled in these compact details. Editor: The composition frames the river as an element intimately bound up in the process. I love seeing a river connected to production in early capitalist representations, highlighting an essential role in both infrastructure and economy. Also, notice that J. Dallinger specifies "Printing in Gold & Colors". In a trade like printing, skilled craftspeople could make a living through material manipulation in innovative processes. Curator: True. Even today, those shimmering details command a certain… je ne sais quoi! Though its utilitarian purpose feels rather quaint in this digital era, doesn’t it? Still, I'd commission something as gorgeous, forget business cards, lets just declare I want my grocery list made with this level of dedication to craft! Editor: Indeed. We often separate the so-called “fine art” from functional printing like this. This trade card wonderfully dissolves those artificial barriers. A reminder that all art, in the end, emerges from skilled work performed by real people.