Mount Horeb in the Arabian Desert, Antique Biblical Landscape View, circa 1850

A view of Mount Horeb in the desert of Sinai, an original antique steel engraving, uncolored, circa 1850. The caption below the image reads DER HOREB in der ARABISCHEN WÜSTE, that is, Horeb in the Arabian Desert.

A broad mountain rises at the center of the plate, its stepped rock faces lit by shafts of sunlight breaking through the clouds, with a small building set on its summit. A great mass of layered rock closes the view at the left, and lower ridges fall away at the right. Across the open valley floor in the foreground moves a caravan of camels with riders and men on foot carrying long poles, very small against the scale of the mountain.

The engraver's credit below the image at lower right reads L. Daut sc. Nbg. (L. Daut engraved it, Nuremberg). The imprint at lower left reads Aus d. Kunstanst. d. Bibliogr Instit. in Hildbh. (from the art works of the Bibliographisches Institut in Hildburghausen), and at lower right Eigenthum d. Verleger (property of the publishers).

The Hildburghausen imprint is that of Meyer's Universum, 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 sheet comes from a dealer's album rather than from a bound set. Horeb is the name the Bible uses in several books for the mountain of God where Moses received the Law, elsewhere called Sinai.

Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top 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.