dited with that most
notable book of graver-work in relief preceding the work of Bewick."

[Footnote 14: Linton, 1889, p. 130.]

But it is doubtful that Jackson was a pupil of Kirkall. For this
assumption we have the evidence of a curious and important little book,
_An Enquiry into the Origins of Printing in Europe_,[15] which because
of a misleading title and an anonymous author has been overlooked as a
reference source. It is a transcription of Jackson's manuscript journal
and was prepared for publication to coincide with the launching of the
wallpaper venture, Kirkall is mentioned as follows (pp. 25-26):

... I shall give a brief account of the State of Cutting on Wood in
England for the type Press before he [Jackson] went to France in
1725. In the beginning of this Century a remarkable Blow was given
to all Cutters on Wood, by an invention of engraving on the same
sort of Metal which types are cast with. The celebrated Mr.
_Kirkhal_, an able Engraver on Copper, is said to be the first who
performed a Relievo Work to answer the use of Cutting on Wood. This
could be dispatched much sooner, and consequently answered the
purpose of Book-sellers and Printers, who purchased these sort of
Works at a much chaper [sic] Rate than could be expected from an
Engraver on Wood....

[Footnote 15: London, 1752. Hereafter cited as the _Enquiry_. The
first half deals with Jackson's opinions on the origins of
printing from movable type and the progress of cutting on wood,
the second half with Jackson's career and his venture into
wallpaper manufacturing. The real content of the book was so
little known that Bigmore and Wyman's comprehensive, annotated
_Bibliography of Printing, London, 1880-86_, vol. 1, p. 201,
described it as dealing with "certain improvements in
printing-types made by Jackson, the typefounder."]

It does not seem reasonable that Jackson would learn the art of
woodcutting from Kirkall and then refer to him as a famous engraver on
copper and type metal. It is just as difficult to believe that Kirkall
taught Jackson to work on metal, not wood.

The "EK" who engraved the blocks for Mattaire's _Latin Classics_ might
very well have been Kirkall, whose style also might have had something
in common with Jackson's early work. But this would not necessarily
indicate a definite influence. English pictorial relief prints for book
illustration in the first decad