subs. phr. (old).—1. Picking of locks; burglary.
1591. GREENE, The Second Part of Conny-catching, Wks., 1883, II., x., 72. I can set downe the subtiltie of the BLACKE ART, which is picking of lockes.
1608. DEKKER, The Belman of London, Wks., 1884–5, III., 137 This BLACKE ART.… is called in English, Picking of Lockes.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. BLACK ART, the art of picking a lock.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum. [The definition given is the same as that of Grose, as above-mentioned.]
2. (undertakers’).—The business of an undertaker: cf. BLACK WORK.
1861. G. A. SALA, The Seven Sons of Mammon, I., 78. Rich men’s funerals in the first style of BLACK ART.
