Antique Print of Chinese Water Raising Machines and Irrigation, 1815

This is an original hand colored copper engraving, dated 1815, from Giulio Ferrario's Le Costume Ancien et Moderne (ancient and modern costume), showing two Chinese machines for raising water. The plate has no engraved title or caption.

Two subjects are stacked on one sheet. Above, a very large spoked wooden wheel stands in a river against a high masonry bank, with a trough at its head. At the right a separate tall lattice framework of timber rises from the water. Small plants grow from the face of the bank. Below, three men in short jackets and loose trousers stand on a long horizontal frame on the bank of a stream, holding a cross rail and treading to turn it. The frame drives a wheel that works an inclined wooden trough running down the bank into the water below. The man at the right smokes a long pipe. Low blue hills close the distance.

The plate number "63" is engraved at the upper right above the border, and the engraver signed below the border at the lower right: "L. Rossi f." A small round blind stamp is pressed at the lower right corner of the plate mark, and an oval blind stamp overlaps the upper right corner of the image.

The plate comes from Le Costume Ancien et Moderne by Giulio Ferrario (1767 to 1847), a Milanese scholar and publisher. The work was a multi-volume illustrated survey of the customs of the peoples of the world, issued in parts in Italian and in French. The part wrapper issued with these plates closes with the imprint "MILAN, DE L'IMPRIMERIE DE L'EDITEUR, MDCCCXV" (Milan, from the publisher's press, 1815).

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top right corners.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.