Excerpt from Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of WashingtonAnother and no inconsiderable difficulty arises from the differ ence in size of what are apparently and really impressions from the same state of the plate. And right here let me give a warning to readers and all who use this work or any work dealing with prints. The dimensions given of a print mean simply the dimensions of the particular print used for the purpose. As a guide to the size of other prints from the same plate, it is merely relative. A print will vary, from a line to three-quarters of an inch, from the mere shrinking of the paper, and, also, in the case of old copper plates, from the ¿attening out of the copper under the pres sure of the rollers of the printing press. As is doubtless gen erally known, the paper upon which copper and steel plates are printed is thoroughly moistened and printed upon in this wet condition. In drying it shrinks, and, depending upon several conditions, unnecessary to relate in detail, some sheets will shrink more than others, sometimes in length and sometimes in width. As each sheet shrinks uniformly the printed surface con tracts as well as the margin and in large plates the print will not infrequently show differences as great as I have named.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.