This pyrography panel, entitled 'By Candlelight', is by Ralph Marshall, dated 1834. It is based on a work by the eighteenth century portrait painter, Henry Robert Morland.Ralph Marshall was one of the major pyrographic artists working in Britain in the nineteenth century. In common with most other artists working in this field, he was an amateur who made pyrographic panels in his spare time.Pyrography, which literally means 'writing in fire', is made by burning into the surface of the wood with a fine metal point. In the early nineteenth century, it was not possible to produce a controlled and constant heat source as the tools used to create the picture were heated in an open charcoal stove. This meant that it took great skill and patience to control the depth of the shading. The time taken to produce pyrography pictures therefore meant that it was extremely difficult to make them a viable commercial proposition in the 19th century.