Plan of the Country around Bushire in Persia, Antique Print, 1780

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1780, a plan of the peninsula and coast around Bushire on the Persian Gulf. The caption reads Platte Grond der streek om Abu schähhr. in Dutch and Plan des Environs d'Abu schähhr. in French, both meaning "Plan of the country around Abu Shahr" (Bushire).

The walled town, lettered Abu schähhr, stands at the left of the plate on the point of a long peninsula, its wall drawn across the neck of land. Above it, across the water, lie broad stippled flats and banks cut by channels, with a long sandbank or island at the upper left and fields divided by ditches at the upper right. The peninsula itself is covered with stippled ground and clumps of palm trees, crossed by a road. At its lower end stands a square fort with a smaller walled court attached, lettered Rischähhr. A compass rose with a fleur de lis is engraved at the lower left of the plan.

The plate is signed "T. K. f." below the lower left corner of the border, and lettered "Tab. XVI." at the upper right.

The plate comes from the second volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, the French translation printed for S. J. Baalde at Amsterdam and Barthelemy Wild at Utrecht; the title page of the volume reads TOME SECOND and is dated MDCCLXXX. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen, and this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left, top left and top right corners.

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