 French la Vie 
I knew the moment I saw them that they were coming home with me.
They were scattered here and there on a table at the brocante, rolled and stacked without bother. Dusty wooden like dowels darkened with age. But the 18th century engravings caught my attention.
Each canvas is attached to carved wooden dowels- both as hanging supports and as weights to keep the canvas taut. Not something I see everyday, well not this old nor this layout.
They are the kind of thing that reminds me why I enjoy the search in the first place. Not for perfection but authenticity.
In the 18th century, engraving for paper was a meticulous process that began with a metal plate, usually copper. A sharp tool called a burin to incise lines directly into the plate, carefully controlling depth and width to create variations in shading and texture. Once the design was complete, the plate was coated with ink, ensuring the ink filled all the incised lines, and the surface was wiped clean so that only the grooves retained ink. Dampened paper was then pressed onto the plate using a printing press, which forced the paper into the inked lines, transferring the image with remarkable precision.
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