Islander and Chief of Wanu, Two Portrait Busts, Antique Hand-Colored Print, 1854

Two portraits of men of Wanu, an original antique hand colored print of 1854, the coloring applied by hand over a printed outline. A single caption is printed below both figures: INBOORLING EN OPPERHOOFD VAN WANU., meaning Native and chief of Wanu. The plate does not say which of the two men is the chief.

The sheet shows two head and shoulder portraits, one above the other, drawn without any background. The upper man is turned three quarters toward the viewer. His hair is tied back under a large white cloth, with red flowers set at the top of his head and at the side, and he wears a heavy green ornament hanging from the ear and a red and white banded necklace. The lower man is shown in strict profile, facing right, wearing the same kind of white headcloth with a red flower, a green ear ornament and a small ornament through the nose. Both are modeled in gray tones with fine hatching.

No artist, lithographer or publisher is named on the plate, and there is no plate number above or below the image; the printed caption is the only lettering on the sheet.

The plate comes from the second volume, the Tweede Deel, of De Volken van den Aardbodem, the Dutch edition of Heinrich Berghaus's illustrated work on the peoples of the world, translated from the German by M. J. van Oven and published at Gorinchem by J. Noorduyn en Zoon in 1854. The title page of the volume announces 120 extra fine plates colored after nature. Berghaus was a German geographer, best known for his Physikalischer Atlas.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Foxing over much of the margin. All four corners read as present in the scan. Several larger brown marks.

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