Juliusz KOSSAK (1824-1899), Kmicic's company, 1898

heliogravure (plate imprint visible); 20 x 25 cm (clear passe-partout);
Signed on the plate p. d.: "Kossak".
Under the composition, signature of the artistic lithography workshop "Meisenbach Riffarth & Co". Georg Meisenbach was a German engraver and inventor of the autotype. In 1883 Meisenbach & Co. merged with Heinrich Riffarth & Co. and founded Meisenbach Riffarth & Company, a well-known European graphic arts firm.
The engraving is from a portfolio illustrating the works of Sienkiewicz published in 1898.
Heliogravure (Gr. helio + gravure)-a type of graphic intaglio printing technique, similar to aquatint, involving photographic transfer of an image onto a metal plate (usually copper) and etching with light-sensitive emulsion so that the brightest areas create the shallowest recesses. Invented in 1879, printing is done in a special hand press. Heliogravure, widespread in the 19th century, was later supplanted by rotogravure, as heliogravure is an expensive and very time-consuming method. Heliogravure is used only when a small number of copies of very high quality need to be created. [for: min. Wikipedia].