ABSTRACT
The antiquarian print collector was a significant figure in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, existing as both a cultural historian and connoisseur and contributing to a rich museum heritage through the legacy of some extraordinary print collections. The flourishing of print culture during the Renaissance was recognized as an important historical phenomenon by early nineteenth-century antiquarians who appreciated the distinctive role of early engravers in the rise and expansion of print design and technology, as culture progressed. In 1804, Thomas Kerrich had apparently been puzzling over the significance of engravers' marks and the extent to which these might be successfully interpreted when determining authorship. The cultural value of the print to the antiquarian was immense, but to say that all antiquarians displayed an attitude that was external to the field of art is to assume that distinct discourses operated in isolation from one another.
