ABSTRACT
William Hogarth's engravings belonged in the upper end of London's burgeoning print market. Talented foreign engravers were relocating to England to capitalize on the expanding print market. The transference occurring between the printer's matrix and the hot metal that becomes the punch is like what transpires between the copper plate and moist sheet of paper in printmaking, which is part of John Evelyn's point in linking sculpture to engraving. Among Hogarth's mechanics are the five female ballad seller characters that Hogarth featured in engravings published between 1735 and 1750. All appear pregnant and/or hold an infant, a fact that merits further investigation. Hogarth's reproductive ballad sellers collapse property and paternity into one culturally and commercially relevant sign that challenges the connoisseurs' efforts to malign engraving. In the early 1750s Hogarth attended a lecture in which Hunter dissected a pregnant uterus, and Hunter recalled Hogarth drawing the specimen and expressing wonder at the design of the womb.
