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The Collation

A print pricked for transfer

So, what’s up with the crocodile mystery for March? As I said in the comments, Tom Reedy was verrrrry close with “It looks like some sort of device using punctures along a line to allow powder or ink to pass through and transfer the outline of a drawing to another surface.” It isn’t itself such a device. Rather, it is evidence of such a device having been made. It is an extreme close-up of the back of an early 17th-century print that was used to create a pin-prick stencil:

Back of a print showing pin-prick outline of a flower

Back of plate 20 of Folger copy of Crispijn van de Passe, Hortus floridus, 1615

Engraving of two carnations

Front of plate 20 from Folger copy of Crispijn van de Passe, Hortus floridus, 1615