Cherub/Angel

Someone I’m in talks with on several items keeps calling this an etching. To me it looks like an original sketch rather than an etching or engraving. What do y’all see? It’s in a modern frame without labels so that won’t help us. It looks like it could be pretty early to me. Do you see a print of some type or an original? I don’t have better photos unfortunately.

 

I see a pencil drawing.

Debora

 

Me2!

 

Do you think it looks newish, decades old, a hundred years old, or potentially hundreds of years old?

 

Well, I'd suspect it's old old-ish. Paper should give you some idea of age.

Debora

 

Here's a nice sketch on laid paper too ...
https://www.album-online.com/detail...ding-alb5201089?iSF=3&sT=ANGEL+CARRYING&bPo=1

 

Victory and Enlightenment is always is attractive.

 

So I would say that it does look like a pencil drawing, especially with some of what look like very light marks near the bottom that may have been erased, the subject as a basis for a more finished piece, and if it is also missing signs of a plate pressed to surface.

But

There are etching techniques that can look very much like sketches. You can cover a plate in wax and then use a variety of tools to sketch directly on a surface. This Victoria & Albert museum yt video shows that process and examples after about the 7 min mark. They can look convincingly like traditional media so keep a sharp eye.