Comtois Bull, Antique French Cattle Breed Print, 1873

This antique cattle print portrays a pale fawn Comtois bull, engraved by A. Riffaut and printed by Lemercier for the French agricultural album of the Vienna Exposition, 1873. The bull stands on rolling upland, with the painter's signature at the lower right of the image.

The Comtois of the Franche-Comte was the cheese country's animal, kept for the milk that went into Gruyere and Comte. That link to Gruyere and Comte makes the plate a pleasing choice for a kitchen or dining room as well as for a collection of breed portraits.

The sheet comes from the folio of maps, plans and drawings that the Direction de l'Agriculture of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce assembled for its own exhibit at the Exposition Universelle held in Vienna in 1873, printed in Paris by the Imprimerie Nationale. The album gathered the statistical cartography, the model state farms, the breed portraits and the prize silver by which France meant to present its agriculture to the world. Its thematic maps belong to the first generation of printed statistical mapping, a field now collected for the history of data visualisation quite as much as for the history of farming.

The print is an aquatint printed in color, issued in 1873. The color is printed rather than applied by hand. This antique cattle print would suit a farmhouse kitchen, a study or a country interior, and it will interest collectors of animal art, French cattle breeds and agricultural history alike.

The sheet is in good condition, with age toning, scattered foxing and noticeable fading. Minor marginal discoloration and faint handling marks are visible. The toning is the ordinary result of age rather than damage. Please see the images for a full view of the condition.

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