Engraving. What kind of repro?

I got a copy of this print on the weekend. (this photo is from online and the colors of mine are slightly different):


The print is Vue de la Place Royale by Jacques Rigaud, an 18th century French engraver.

My copy is not 18th century. It is likely quite modern, maybe within the last 20 years, but it looks like an engraving, and it feels like an engraving, and there is a plate mark surrounding the image. My copy of the print has a blind stamp identifying it as from the Louvre, department of Chalcographie. The above picture comes from this link:

http://www.chalcographiedulouvre.co...age_notice-ok.php?Ident=D&NoticeId=33&myPos=1

As you can see in the link, copies of this print can be ordered from the Louvre, minimum quantity of three. So that's what I have here.

The question is: what kind of print is this? Is this a re-strike from the original plate? Does it make a difference? Does anyone know? The link doesn't specify any price, it just says talk to the department, so I'm guessing they're not cheap.

 

Very nice print! My impression is it's a restrike done by the Louvre from the original plates. Here's a Google translation of an explanation given on the site...

"CHALCOGRAPHY, S. F.1 The art of chalcographe. Intaglio engraving synonym.2 The workshop, the same facility where one carries this art.3 Name of a collection of engravings. Chalcography from the Louvre Museum, a collection consisting of all the engravings which the museum owns the boards. Catalogue of engraved plates component funds chalcography and whose tests are sold in this establishment, in the Louvre.
Emile Littre,Dictionary of the French language1872-1876
The word "chalcography" (which means "writing on copper" in Greek) is the art of copper engraving and the place where they keep the engraved plates in this manner. By extension, the term also applies to burning on media other than copper.
Founded in 1797, the Chalcography Louvre maintains a collection of more than 13,000 engraved plates, under the responsibility of the Department of Prints and Drawings from the Louvre Museum. Since its creation in 1895, the RMN has been assigned the commercial direction of the Engraving. This activity is publishing, distribution and marketing of new prints, engravings from the collection and by conventional methods of printing intaglio. Today, the collections of the Chalcographie getting richer through antique prints of acquisition policy and control to contemporary artists."

 

I guess the key phrase is "publishing, distribution and marketing of new prints, engravings from the collection and by conventional methods of printing intaglio".

It is a nice print. Of course a re-strike is not as desirable as an original, but it is very well done.

Thanks for that.

 

I'd think having a restrike from the Louvre would hold some weight, too.

 

Nice!!!