Oppenheim on the Rhine, Antique Steel Engraving after Birket Foster, c. 1872

A steel engraving of Oppenheim on the Rhine, dominated by the Gothic Church of St. Catherine, after Birket Foster.

The church rises at the center with its two slender spires, its tall traceried windows catching the light. Roofs and a second church tower crowd below it, and beyond, the broad plain of the Rhine stretches to distant hills under a sky of sunlit cloud. In the foreground an old wooden cart rests by a wall where a small group sits in the grass.

The plate is lettered "B. Foster" and "E.I. Roberts", with the title "Oppenheim" 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.

St. Catherine's in Oppenheim is one of the finest Gothic churches between Strasbourg and Cologne, and Foster's high viewpoint shows how it commands the wine town and the valley.

An appealing choice for a collector of German views or of church architecture, it suits a study or dining room. The engraved image measures about 11.5 by 16.3 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.