Boy selling Flowers in Rotterdam, Daffodil Baskets, Antique Print, 1817

An original antique hand colored engraving after Miss Semple, lettered "Boy selling Flowers in the Streets of Rotterdam.", from The Costume of the Netherlands published by Rudolph Ackermann in London in 1817. A boy seen from behind, his face turned in profile, wears a black wide brimmed hat, a dark gray jacket and breeches, pale blue gray stockings and black buckled shoes. A wooden yoke rests across his shoulders, and from it on cords hang two round wicker baskets planted with spring flowers: yellow daffodils, blue and pink hyacinths, a red and yellow tulip and blue bell shaped blooms among long green leaves.

The engraved caption below the image reads "Boy selling Flowers in the Streets of Rotterdam." and beneath it runs the imprint "Publish'd March 1, 1817, at R. Ackermann's, 101 Strand.". The plate carries no engraver's signature, and the drawings for the whole series are credited on the title page to Miss Semple.

The plate belongs to The Costume of the Netherlands, published in London in 1817 by Rudolph Ackermann at his Repository of Arts, 101 Strand. The title page announces thirty colored engravings after drawings from nature by Miss Semple, with descriptions in English and French, and the plates carry imprints dated in the course of 1817. Each figure or group is set on a small washed patch of ground against the open paper, with the caption engraved in a copperplate script below. Ackermann (1764 to 1834), a German born publisher and print seller working in London, issued many illustrated books with hand colored plates, as well as the periodical The Repository of Arts.

A single plate suits a narrow frame with a generous mat, and several plates from the series hang well together as a group of Dutch street and household scenes.

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