The graver, was frequently used and was made of well-tempered steel fitted into a wooden handle. There were two sorts of gravers: one was square and was only used for making broad strokes; the other was lozenge shaped, which was used for lines that needed to be more faint and delicate.

The scraper was three-edged, and was used to remove any roughness raised by the graver.

The burnisher was made of hard steel and, as its name implies, it was polished steel with a round end, and used to rub down any engraved lines that had been cut too deeply, or for correcting any defects there may have been in the copper.

A stone was used for sharpening the graver, and an oil-rubber and very fine charcoal were used for polishing the plate. And a sandbag was used to help turn round the plate.

These were the tools of the engraver.

Caroline Archer is a writer and eminent print historian