German 18th Century

This artist kept meticulous endpapers—like secret notebooks—filled with tiny gold figures standing in a row. They stamped them on colored paper just to see how light hit metallic ink. One sheet hangs in the National Gallery’s print room labeled NGA 11460. The trick? Each woodcut is hand-cut, then hand-inked, so no two sheets look alike. If you squint at the rose-tinted “Zwarg Gesellschaft” sample you’ll spot 12 identical monks marching across the page. Try holding it at arm’s length; the gold catches the room’s light like a mirror.