The process of hard ground etching is believed to have first been practiced in the 15th century by Dutch artist Daniel Hopfer, though the process of acid etching for artistic purposes dates back to antiquity. The actual artistic process utilizes an acid bath to etch the design scratched into a wax-coated surface of a hard ground plate, which is generally copper or zinc. This plate is zinc and features an array of detailed renderings of various sea creatures. Date and artist unknown.
