Mauchamp Merino Ram and Ewe, Rambouillet, Antique Sheep Print, 1873

This antique sheep print shows a Mauchamp Merino ram and ewe at Rambouillet, drawn and lithographed by F. Lehnert for the French agricultural album of the Vienna Exposition, 1873. The Mauchamp Merino was the silky fleeced strain that arose from a single ram born at Mauchamp in 1828 and was fixed by careful selection.

It is one of the classic documented cases of a useful mutation being caught and bred on, which gives the plate an interest for the history of animal breeding and of natural science that reaches well beyond the farmyard.

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 sheep print would suit a farmhouse kitchen, a study or a country interior, and it will interest collectors of animal art, sheep breeding and the history of wool.

The sheet is in good condition, with age toning, scattered foxing and minor marginal marks. A small pale stain is visible near the upper center. 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.