Calcutta, Soldiers and Artillery Before Classical Palaces, Engraving, 1859

An original antique steel engraving, uncolored, titled "CALCUTTA." A long row of grand classical buildings with colonnades, balconies and awnings lines the right side of the view, leading back to a large palace crowned by a dome and, at the left, a triumphal gateway topped by a lion. Across the foreground a column of soldiers in tall hats marches with rifles shouldered, followed by a cannon on its carriage and an open carriage with officers. At the left a lady with a parasol walks with a child beside a pond, a porter carries baskets on a yoke, and townspeople watch, while at the right a turbaned man stands at a small table beside a veiled woman and a child. Horsemen and more troops crowd the street behind.

The plate is lettered below the image in Dutch: "CALCUTTA.", which translates as "Calcutta". Beneath the caption, in a small script, is the publisher's imprint "Uitg. Gebrs Kraaÿ, Amsterdam.", short for uitgegeven (published) by the Kraay brothers of Amsterdam. No artist or engraver is named on the plate.

It was issued in 1859 in A. van Otterloo's Britsch-Indië, beschreven naar de nieuwste bronnen, published in Amsterdam by Gebroeders Kraay as the opening volume of their series Vreemde Landen en Volken (Foreign Lands and Peoples). The title page describes the book as illustrated with twenty-four steel engravings and a map, and each view carries its own Dutch caption and the Kraay imprint.

Calcutta was the capital of British India in 1859, and its classical public buildings earned it the name City of Palaces. The parade and street life give this plate plenty of incident for a close look on a desk or a study wall.

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