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Other · 1776
Inscriptions on a Desert Tomb Stone, Antique Niebuhr Print, 1776
€240BG-14407-1-45
Interior designers: BarTrade members buy at their trade price. How it works
Shown framed for scaleYou receive the original sheet, unframed. Pieces may ship rolled. Ask us for a conservation framer near you or the project.
Colors in this printPaper tone · #D7CEB0RGB 215, 206, 17686%
Taupe · #968F74RGB 150, 143, 11612%
Moss · #767158RGB 118, 113, 881%
- Sheet
- 22 cm × 28 cm (width × height)
- Framed as shown
- 41 cm × 46 cm
- Shown on
- Stone wall
- Size
- Small, up to 50 cm (20 in) framed
- Date
- 1776
- Technique
- Copper engraving
- Color
- Uncolored
- Condition
- Good
- Stock no.
- BG-14407-1-45
This is an original antique copper engraving from 1776, plate XLV of the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie. The caption engraved below the image reads Beeld-Schriften, op een' Graf-steen in de Woestyne. in Dutch and Hiérogliphes, sur une Tombe dans le Desert. in French, meaning hieroglyphs on a tombstone in the desert.
The whole of the tall frame is given to a single inscription, copied line by line in sixteen ruled horizontal rows inside a heavy double border. The signs are drawn in solid hatched silhouette and spaced across each row much as they stood on the stone. Among the signs that can be picked out are many birds of several kinds, large and small, drawn standing in profile; seated and kneeling human figures, some holding staffs or a bow; a striding animal in the top row; snakes, eyes, loaves, baskets and water lines; and a branching tree shape near the foot of the stone. A few signs are left as faint dotted outlines where the carving was worn.
No artist's or engraver's name is lettered on the plate. The plate number Tab: XLV. is engraved at the upper right.
The plate belongs to the first volume of Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, marked TOME PREMIER and Traduit de l'Allemand on its title page, which carries the imprint of S. J. Baalde at Amsterdam and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp. at Utrecht and the date MDCCLXXVI. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner. One larger brown mark.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.
In the same colors.
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