Elisha Kirkall

He was noted for engravings on type metal that could be set up with letterpress for book illustrations, and was also known as a mezzotint artist.

From his first times in London, book ornaments he provided as raised metal proved very popular with publishers.

[2] A reputation for wood engraving was apparently based on misapprehensions, and the attribution to him of woodcuts in Samuel Croxall's edition of Æsop's Fables (1722) was guesswork.

In this manner he published by subscription sixteen views of shipping by William Van de Velde the younger, the seven Raphael Cartoons, hunting scenes by Johann Elias Ridinger, and other works.

Later plates for the booksellers included:[1] A portrait by Kirkall of Eliza Haywood, prefixed to her Works in 1724, earned for him a couplet in Pope's Dunciad.