Haut-Tingry National Sheep Farm, Antique French Farm View, 1873

This antique print of the Haut-Tingry national sheep farm gives a bird's eye view of the Bergerie Nationale du Haut-Tingry in the Pas-de-Calais, drawn by V. Rose and lithographed by Deroy for the French agricultural album of the Vienna Exposition, 1873. The ranges are set round a large yard with a fenced circular plantation at its center, flocks are being driven across the yard, and open downland and haystacks lie beyond.

It is the farm at which the album's Dishley and Dishley Merino sheep are shown, and it pairs naturally with those two plates.

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 a lithograph, issued in 1873. It is uncolored. This antique print of the Haut-Tingry national sheep farm would suit a study, library or office, and it will appeal to collectors of French architectural views and of agricultural or veterinary history.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with general age-related toning, light foxing and a faint stain in the upper-right margin. There is minor creasing, with small tears and chips along the lower-left edge. The image remains clear. 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.