Boat Owner, Norman Boatman and Oyster Sellers of La Rochelle and Bordeaux, 1842

This original antique lithograph, hand colored, comes from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). The upper image is set on a plank quay among bales and sacks. At the left a boat owner in a white cap, brown coat, yellow waistcoat and wide white breeches carries a coil of rope and gestures toward his companion. At the right a boatman in a tall black hat, blue striped shirt, braces and white apron over striped trousers leans against sacks marked with large letters, with a sail and a red pennant behind him and a dark iron post between the two men. In the lower image a woman at the left in a tall white cap, red sleeves and a striped skirt carries baskets of oysters on her back and arm. In the center a woman in a red and yellow checked headscarf, green dress and striped apron rests a hand on the wheel of a wooden cart, where a man in a red cap reaches into a basket of oysters.

The lettering reads "Tom IV" at the top left, "FRANCIA" at the center and "Tav 28" at the top right. Under the upper image: "Padrone di barca" (boat owner) and "Normano uomo di barca" (Norman boatman). Under the lower image: "Ostricaja di La-Rochelle. Pescivendola ed Ostricaro di Bordò" (oyster woman of La Rochelle; fishwife and oyster man of Bordeaux).

La Rochelle and Bordeaux are ports of the French Atlantic coast, and "Bordò" is an Italian form of Bordeaux. The plate records working dress of the coast and its oyster trade, alongside a boatman from Normandy on the Channel.

A good choice for a kitchen, a seafood restaurant or a coastal home.

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