Marchemberrr
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2026
- Messages
- 1
Hi everyone,
By a rather strange chain of circumstances, about three years ago I found myself looking for one particular book on engraving.
It’s a long story, and probably one for another time.
That search eventually brought me to Engravers Cafe.
I started reading.
Then I started saving book titles.
Then references from old threads.
Then catalogues.
Then magazines.
And, apparently, somewhere along the way this turned into a bibliography.
Three years later, I thought it was probably time to stop pretending this was just a collection of notes on my computer and organise it properly.
The result is one downloadable spreadsheet, built partly from my own research and partly from older Engravers Cafe book lists, Ron Foster’s bibliography, and recommendations scattered through old discussions here.
The main bibliography
The main part contains books and other reference material worth looking for or collecting: engraving manuals, design and ornament books, lettering references, monographs on engravers, catalogues, visual references and related material.
Where possible, I’ve been checking editions, publication dates, ISBNs, ASINs and other identifying information.
I’ve also tried to make the list useful rather than simply long.
Where appropriate, entries can be classified by level, so someone new to engraving can filter the bibliography and get a more manageable idea of where to start instead of being presented with several hundred titles and no context.
The spreadsheet can be downloaded or copied, so everyone can adapt their own version to their needs: add notes, mark books they already own, create personal selections, change classifications, or build their own working library from it.
The internet has also changed considerably since many of the original Cafe lists were compiled. Searching for an obscure book today is a very different process from searching for one fifteen or twenty years ago.
For that reason, the information is kept in a structured format so it can be searched and filtered conventionally, but can also be used with modern search tools, including AI-assisted search, when trying to identify or locate a particular title, edition or copy.
Open online resources
There is also a separate tab in the same spreadsheet for free and legally available online resources.
While working through the older references, I realised that a considerable part of the literature engravers have used over the years is now very old.
Some of these books are difficult to find physically, but many have entered the public domain and have since been digitised by libraries, museums and archives.
So I’ve been collecting verified links to legal digital editions wherever I can find them.
This section is also expanding to include other useful visual material mentioned around the Cafe over the years: museum collections, auction catalogues and archives, particular sales, magazines, gunmakers’ archives and other sources.
Where possible, I’m trying to record not only where something can be found, but what is useful there and why an engraver might want to look at it.
A work in progress
This is absolutely not intended to be a definitive canon of engraving literature.
It is a working bibliography, and there will inevitably be mistakes, missing editions and things I simply haven’t found yet.
If you spot an error, remember a book that should be there, disagree with a classification, know of a better edition, or have an old catalogue or reference worth preserving, I would genuinely appreciate corrections and additions.
There is an extraordinary amount of knowledge buried in almost twenty years of discussions on this forum. I’m simply trying to organise some of it and make it easier to find and use again.
docs.google.com
By a rather strange chain of circumstances, about three years ago I found myself looking for one particular book on engraving.
It’s a long story, and probably one for another time.
That search eventually brought me to Engravers Cafe.
I started reading.
Then I started saving book titles.
Then references from old threads.
Then catalogues.
Then magazines.
And, apparently, somewhere along the way this turned into a bibliography.
Three years later, I thought it was probably time to stop pretending this was just a collection of notes on my computer and organise it properly.
The result is one downloadable spreadsheet, built partly from my own research and partly from older Engravers Cafe book lists, Ron Foster’s bibliography, and recommendations scattered through old discussions here.
The main bibliography
The main part contains books and other reference material worth looking for or collecting: engraving manuals, design and ornament books, lettering references, monographs on engravers, catalogues, visual references and related material.
Where possible, I’ve been checking editions, publication dates, ISBNs, ASINs and other identifying information.
I’ve also tried to make the list useful rather than simply long.
Where appropriate, entries can be classified by level, so someone new to engraving can filter the bibliography and get a more manageable idea of where to start instead of being presented with several hundred titles and no context.
The spreadsheet can be downloaded or copied, so everyone can adapt their own version to their needs: add notes, mark books they already own, create personal selections, change classifications, or build their own working library from it.
The internet has also changed considerably since many of the original Cafe lists were compiled. Searching for an obscure book today is a very different process from searching for one fifteen or twenty years ago.
For that reason, the information is kept in a structured format so it can be searched and filtered conventionally, but can also be used with modern search tools, including AI-assisted search, when trying to identify or locate a particular title, edition or copy.
Open online resources
There is also a separate tab in the same spreadsheet for free and legally available online resources.
While working through the older references, I realised that a considerable part of the literature engravers have used over the years is now very old.
Some of these books are difficult to find physically, but many have entered the public domain and have since been digitised by libraries, museums and archives.
So I’ve been collecting verified links to legal digital editions wherever I can find them.
This section is also expanding to include other useful visual material mentioned around the Cafe over the years: museum collections, auction catalogues and archives, particular sales, magazines, gunmakers’ archives and other sources.
Where possible, I’m trying to record not only where something can be found, but what is useful there and why an engraver might want to look at it.
A work in progress
This is absolutely not intended to be a definitive canon of engraving literature.
It is a working bibliography, and there will inevitably be mistakes, missing editions and things I simply haven’t found yet.
If you spot an error, remember a book that should be there, disagree with a classification, know of a better edition, or have an old catalogue or reference worth preserving, I would genuinely appreciate corrections and additions.
There is an extraordinary amount of knowledge buried in almost twenty years of discussions on this forum. I’m simply trying to organise some of it and make it easier to find and use again.
