Antique St Eustatius Caribbean View, Ships Harbor, Tournefort 1717

A harbor view of a walled town beneath a mountain, with a large sailing ship in the foreground, from Joseph Pitton de Tournefort's account of his voyage to the Levant (Relation d'un Voyage du Levant, published in Paris in 1717 by the Imprimerie Royale). It is an original copper engraving in black and white. The lettering reads "View of the City of Tenedos", with "Vol. II" at the upper left and a page number at the upper right.

The scene looks across open water, with small waves engraved in short horizontal strokes, toward a town climbing a headland. Houses, towers and a castle with crenellated walls stand along the shore and up the slope, and a rounded rocky outcrop breaks the water in front of the walls. Behind the town a pointed mountain rises under a sky of large clouds. A three-masted ship under sail dominates the center, with a second vessel at the right, a small rowing boat at the left and a distant sail on the horizon.

Tenedos is the island now called Bozcaada, in the Aegean off the coast of Turkey, and the view belongs to the Levantine part of Tournefort's travels.