Background:
This husband-and-wife duo performs an intimate domestic concert, jointly playing a diminutive pipe organ with four stops. The wife operates the two bellows in time to the music, giving voice to the notes, while her husband creates the melody on the keyboard. He is clad in a housecoat and comfortable slippers and she wears a cozy fur-trimmed dress. Shown at the same scale and working in tandem, they symbolize a harmonious marriage. The little dog listening attentively is both an emblem of loyalty and a realistic detail of their well-to-do home.

Israhel van Meckenem (c.1445 – 10 November 1503), also known as Israhel van Meckenem the Younger, was a German printmaker and goldsmith, perhaps of a Dutch family origin.
He was the most prolific engraver of the fifteenth century and an important figure in the early history of old master prints. He was active from 1465 until his death.
He probably trained with Master E. S. in South Germany, and may well have been with him at his death c. 1467, since he acquired and reworked forty-one of the master\'s plates. Another two hundred of van Meckenem\'s own prints also were copies of ones by Master E. S. In total, he produced over six hundred plates, most of which were copies of other prints; they represent about 20% of print production by all Northern European artists in the period of his working life. His career lasted long enough for him to copy Dürer prints.
He copied prints by the Housebook Master, including some now otherwise lost, Martin Schongauer, and many other German engravers. His famous and very fine late series on the Life of the Virgin appears to have been based on drawings by Hans Holbein the Elder or his workshop, and he may have entered into a regular commercial relationship with Holbein.
His early works were fairly crude, but in the 1480s he developed an effective personal style and made increasingly large and finished works. His own compositions are often very lively, and take a great interest in the secular life of his day. One famous print, supposed to illustrate the story of St John the Baptist and Salome, pushes the specific incidents of the story far in the background to allow space for a scene of court dancers, dressed in the height of contemporary fashion, which takes up most of the plate.
He was sophisticated in self-presentation, signing later prints with his name and town, and producing the first self-portrait print of himself and his wife, which was also the first portrait print of an identifiable person. Some plates seem to have been reworked more than once by his workshop, or produced in more than one version, and many impressions have survived, so his ability to distribute and sell his prints was evidently equally well developed. He was apparently the first to issue engraved (as opposed to woodcut) indulgences, apparently bootlegged version[s] ... never subject to papal review; one print promises 20,000 years reduction of time in Purgatory per set of prayers, increased in a second state to 45,000 years.
In the Heures de Charles d\'Angoulême, an important manuscript showing the links between printmaking and illumination in the late 15th century, Robinet Testard incorporated sixteen of van Meckenem\'s prints, gluing them directly on to the vellum then overpainting.

Durand, Charles Amand 1831-1905
An innovative and passionate engraver & artist who resurrected the fading copper & wood plates of various Old Masters from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries such as Rembarant, Albrect Drurer, Hans Sebald Beham and others. He admired their etchings and engravings which he noted through the ravages of time had faded and were no longer producing quality impressions.
Durand comprehensively researched many public and private collections displaying the Old Masters\' engravings and realised that many of the images would eventually fade completely. He especially admired the works of Rembrandt and scrutinised his plates and techniques. Rembrandt\'s engravings were created in the 1600s, but by the mid 1800s the original plates were worn and in a defective condition. In order to form exact reproductions he used as his guide, not the worn and flat copper plates, but the 1st and 2nd state prints of the original works. Durand dedicated the major part of his life to recreating in exact detail engraved plates of Rembrandt & other old Masters.
Durand\'s re-engravings are so well respected major collectors throughout Europe sought to acquire them, including the French Biblioteque Nationale and the Louvre Museum in Paris. Born in Paris and became a master engraver early in his career. He deeply admired the 15th, 16th, and 17th century Old Masters’ engravings and saw how they lost quality and faded from the ravages of time. This realization, combined with in-depth research throughout public and private collections of these masters, inspired Durands dedication to recreate their images and preserve the original quality for future generations.
In 1895 Theo Van Gogh, brother and manager of the infamous Vincent Van Gogh stumbled across the works of this artist in one of his travels. He was so impressed that he sought the artist out and spent an evening with him in his home. Afterward he quickly took to pen and paper to write Vincent to express his enthusiasm for his artistic talents and intellect. The Van Gogh brothers were just two of the many that recognized Amand Durand\'s talents. However, it would take years to unravel a story book mystery that makes his works and talents even more famed today.
Amand Durand was a great admirer of Rembrandt. He desired to study the plates and techniques of this genius. Unfortunately at the time there only remained about 100 known plates, which were available to produce fine quality impressions. For 100 years the bulk of Rembrandt\'s plates were shrouded in mystery. As time moved on some of Rembrandt’s plates began to surface. By this time Rembrandt’s plates were miserably worn and dull. Amand Durand, who by now had made the ranks of a noted engraver, decided to remedy this with his own gifted talents. He researched and intensely studied pieces that were available only in collections. From here on he spent the major part of his life exactly duplicating Rembrandt’s images onto copper plates. These recreations were called Amand Durand’s after Rembrandt. Their unbelievable clarity and exactness were achieved because Amand Durand used as his guide, not the worn and dull plates, but the first and second state etchings of the master’s original works. By this time Durand’s talent were known to experts of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In 1855, Conservator of the Cabinet de Estampes, George Duplessis so appreciated the genius of this man that he had his work published in books which belong to the Bibliotheque Nationale in France. Amand-Durand was used as master etcher in an anthology of European engravings, which became so valuable that they were kept under locked scrutiny in most libraries. What we have is a noted master duplicating a master some 200 years later.