Antique View of Pitesti in Wallachia, Hand Colored Aquatint, 1809

An original antique aquatint with original hand color, 1809, one of the views drawn by Luigi Mayer and published in London by Robert Bowyer. The caption engraved below the image reads "PITESTI."

A view of Pitesti across a stretch of still water. A large tree fills the left side, with fallen branches at its foot, and beneath it a rider in red and a man on foot pass along the path. In the middle distance stand houses with steep roofs at the water's edge, with further spires beyond them and a wooded hill closing the view.

At the right a church with two pointed spires and a cluster of houses with red roofs stand on a steep green bank above the water. In the foreground four peasants, three women and a man, carry a long tree trunk on their shoulders along the shore.

No artist or engraver is named on the plate, and it carries no plate number. The caption is engraved in open capitals below the image, and beneath it a publication line in script gives the publisher Robert Bowyer, his address at 80 Pall Mall, and the date 1809. The plate comes from Views in the Ottoman Dominions, in Europe, in Asia, and some of the Mediterranean Islands, from the original drawings taken for Sir Robert Ainslie, by Luigi Mayer, printed by T. Bensley for R. Bowyer in London in 1810 with 71 hand colored aquatint plates (Abbey, Travel II, 371; Tooley 321). In the book each plate was accompanied by a page of descriptive text in French and English. The plates are unsigned; the aquatint work is probably by William Watts. Luigi Mayer (1755 to 1803) was an Italian born artist who worked in the Ottoman Empire for Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador at Constantinople.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom. Several larger brown marks.

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