Marksburg Castle on the Rhine, Steel Engraving after Birket Foster, c. 1872

A steel engraving of the Marksburg above Braubach on the Rhine, after Birket Foster and engraved by E.I. Roberts.

The castle sits on the summit of a steep, rounded hill, with the little town and its church spire along the river below. In the foreground a timber raft carries a group of travelers, and a rowing boat and a moored sailing barge lie by the bank, where men unload barrels. Clouds sweep across a wide sky.

The plate is lettered "B. Foster" and "E.I. Roberts", with the title "Castle of Marksburg" and the imprint "William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow". It belongs to the same Mackenzie series as the Liebenstein and Sterrenberg plate that Heritage Images records in H.M. Hozier's The Franco-Prussian War (1872), so it is dated circa 1872.

The Marksburg is the only hilltop castle of the Middle Rhine that was never destroyed, and it is now part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site.

A classic Rhine subject for a hallway or study, and a natural companion to the other Foster plates in this group. The engraved image measures about 11 by 16.1 cm (height by width), and the margins around it carry all the original lettering, which is worth keeping visible in the mat.

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