Ignoble school of wood-engraving. But the few examples sold to Dutch merchants at the end of the eighteenth century seem entirely to have escaped the notice of the Old writers on the art Of engraving, or to have been so strongly in opposition to the principles of their faith as to be deliberately ignored. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century was well advanced that certain artists — among whom it will suffice to name Degas and Monet — possessing Specimens, were not slow to appreciate their charm and even to bow, in a measure, to their in?uence. Even then, popular.