Lodore Cataract, Cumberland, Antique Waterfall View Engraved by Martini, 1848

The Lodore Falls in Cumberland, an original antique steel engraving, uncolored, dated 1848 on the plate. The caption below the image reads "LOWDORE CATARACT, CUMBERLAND" with (England) on the line beneath, in the spelling of the plate.

This is an upright plate. The water pours down a steep wooded ravine toward the viewer, breaking white over a staircase of dark boulders, with a single slender tree growing from a rock in midstream. Dense trees climb both sides of the gorge, firs stand on the skyline at the upper right and a bare crag rises at the upper left under a light, clouded sky. At the lower left, beside a dead tree, one man clambers over the rocks while another stands against a boulder above the torrent.

The engraver's credit just below the image at lower right reads Gest. v. I. G. Martini 1848. (engraved by I. G. Martini, 1848). The imprint at lower left reads Aus d. Kunstanst. d. Bibl. Inst. in Hildbh. (from the art works of the Bibliographisches Institut in Hildburghausen), and at lower right Eigenthum d. Verleger (property of the publishers). The plate number DLXXXIV is engraved at the top right.

The sheet comes from a dealer's album rather than from a bound set. Meyer's Universum was a serial collection of engraved views with descriptive text, published by Joseph Meyer's Bibliographisches Institut at Hildburghausen from 1833, its plates engraved on steel. The falls lie on the Watendlath Beck just above Derwentwater, and Robert Southey made them famous with his poem The Cataract of Lodore.

Marked handling soiling along the bottom, left and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Corners and edges are not shown by this scan. Clean, even paper tone in the margin. Several larger brown marks.

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