Baroque Engraving vs Currency Engraving
Currency Engraving evolved from Baroque Engraving — intaglio line engraving turned to security printing.
Baroque Engraving
The grand 17th-century art of the copperplate, in which swelling engraved lines build dramatic allegorical title pages and frontispieces. Light, shadow, and rhetorical figures are rendered entirely in incised hatching.
- Burin-incised swelling-and-tapering line
- Cross-hatching modeling theatrical chiaroscuro
- Allegorical personifications and putti
- Architectural cartouche framing the title
- Dense rhetorical, emblematic composition
Currency Engraving
The hyper-precise intaglio engraving of banknotes, stamps, and stock certificates, built from guilloché lattices, micro-fine line work, and engraved portraits. Its intricacy is a security feature: detail too fine to counterfeit.
- Guilloché lattice patterns from a geometric lathe
- Portraits modeled in fine engraved line and stipple
- Lacy intricate ornamental borders
- Microscopic engraved lettering and numerals
- Tactile raised intaglio ink ridge
At a glance
| Baroque Engraving | Currency Engraving | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 17th century | 19th–20th century |
| Discipline | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Region | Italy, France, Netherlands, Western Europe | United States, Britain, Western Europe |
| Family | Pre-modern, Print | Pre-modern, Security/Technical |
| Formal traits | engraved, cross-hatched, allegorical, ornamental | engraved, guilloché, intricate, high-contrast |
More comparisons
Advertisement