Gothic Ornamental Print with Mythical Creatures

About this print

Winged dragons and long billed grotesques square off across the top of the sheet, and beneath them hangs a row of dagger shaped panels packed with dense black scrollwork. This is blackwork ornament, engraved as a working pattern for goldsmiths and armourers to copy onto metal. The plate carries the initials S and CF and the date 1618 along its bottom edge. Spiky, symmetrical, and satisfyingly sinister.