Antique View of the City of Shiraz, Niebuhr Copper Engraving, 1780

An original antique copper engraving, published in 1780, with a wide view of a Persian city lying in its plain. The caption engraved in the lower margin reads, in Dutch and then in French, Gezigt der Stad Schirâs. and Vûe de la Ville de Schirâs., both meaning "View of the City of Shiraz".

The town fills the middle distance as a dense mass of flat roofed houses, domes and towers behind a wall, with a long range of mountains drawn across the whole width of the sheet behind it. In the foreground at the right stands a tall square building of several stories crowned by an onion dome, with small buildings at its foot. Nearer the center of the foreground is a squat round structure with an arched doorway, a single cypress beside it. Roads run across the plain toward the town, and the sky above is filled with banks of cloud worked in fine horizontal line.

The plate number Tab: XXXVI. is engraved at the upper right. Below the lower left corner of the image is the engraver's credit, lettered C Philips Jz f in small script, the f standing for fecit, made it. The plate is a wide folding plate, as issued in the book.

The plate comes from the second volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, Tome Second, the French translation printed at Amsterdam by S. J. Baalde and at Utrecht by Barthelemy Wild, with the title page dated MDCCLXXX. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the right edge. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Folding plate, original center fold as issued. Slight wear at the bottom right corner.

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