What Is This?

[Cmax]

I have recently found this piece of artwork. It was behind a painting we bought. I have been told this is on parchment and has 2 stamps on the border and a set of intials, which you can only see if you hold it up to a light. It has been pressed into the parchment. (You can see the indention at the edges) It has written in pencil at the bottom on the left “1/30”, in the center “Sir Ross”, on the right “Ross”.
If anyone can give me any information about this, I will be grateful.
[email protected]
Thank You, Chris

[Elwell]

It's not parchment, it's laid paper. The initials and images that you can see when you hold it up to the light are watermarks, which will tell you what kind of paper it is. The image itself is an etching, a kind of print made by exposing a copper plate to acid. The impression is from when the inked plate was forced into the wet paper by the printing press. The pencil writing is the standard format for marking prints, number/edition size, title, signature. So, this is impression #1 of an edition of 30, the title is "Sir Ross" and the artist's (last) name is Ross.

[Elwell]

Here's some info on the paper: http://papermoulds.typepad.com/simon...head-laid.html
So, British, probably some time after the 1930s.

[Elwell]

As for the image itself, considering it's not of particularly high quality, and no searches for "ross etching," "sir ross," or similar strings give relevant results, my guess is that it's student work, since students are the only amateurs likely to have access to the materials and equipment necessary for etching.

[JeffX99]

Just backing up Elwell's estimations. Exactly what I was thinking - probably a student in printmaking class having fun with the idea of being a rennaisance scribe. The watermarks were usually made with wire laid into the paper mould, thus the sort of curly-cue aspect of the initials. No way to tell what grade they got!