In the 1774 London print "The Bostonians Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering," they are forcing the victim to drink tea and in the lower left corner there is a bucket and what could be described as a mop.  The dumping of the tea into Boston harbor is the background.

David Kiracofe

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From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Kukla [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 9:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "map" or "tar map" at Williamsburg, November 1774

Looks like tar MOP solves the riddle, thank you. I'll re-check the MS to
see whether I misread an a for an o - though hand-written single letters
often can be ambiguous .... in fact I remember
Jefferson-Papers-editor-emeritus Charles Cullen talking about the
difficulty he once had in transcribing a TJ state paper that mentioned
either America's "whole trade" or its "whale trade"......

As to mezzotint, it was an intaglio* printing technique that produced a
rich range of grey tones, visible for example in the Alternative of
Williams-burg print -- reproduced (among other places) at:
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Spring06/tar.cfm

* , where the ink is held in the indentations of the metal plate, as in
etchings or engravings, rather than the upper surface of a woodcut,
linoleum block print, or letterpress linotype, etc.

As distinct from engravings or drypoint, which begin with a smooth metal
plate, the artist creating a mezzotint began by working the copper plate
with a special tool that created hundreds of tiny indentations across its
surface (sort of like a half-tone) and then working the white areas of the
design by flatten the indentations so they wouldn't hold ink or engraving
the dark areas to that they would hold ink. The intaglio printing process -
ink the plate, wipe away surface, squeeze ink to paper in the press - was
pretty much the same for etchings and mezzotint.
For more detail, or perhaps clarification of my attempted explanation :)
compare/contrast the wikipedia articles for engraving / mezzotint /
drypoint As I understand it, one can get more prints from an engraved plate
than a mezzoprint plate - while dry point (where the ink catches in the
burr, too) is even more delicate and results in a smallest number of
acceptable prints.......


On , Craig Kilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Jon,


> Thank you for my word of the day: "mezzotint" Now as to how well know
> this is, I must confess total ignorance. Any examples?
> Craig

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