Ponte Piccolo with Camel Train, Antique Hand Colored Aquatint, 1809

An original antique aquatint with original hand color, published in London in 1809, after a drawing by Luigi Mayer. The caption reads "PONTE PICCOLO.", Italian for little bridge.

A paved road rises onto a long bridge with timber railings and tall posts, running out across the water toward a low sun. Two laden camels with their driver stand on the crest of the bridge, and in the foreground a man riding a donkey leads a third camel loaded with bales, while a man with a staff walks beside the railing. Long shadows fall across the paving. At the left stands a timber house with a balcony, a woman in its doorway, and beyond it an old stone arch overgrown with plants and a man seated by the water. At the right, under a large tree and a house with latticed windows, women sit in a tent around a fire, one standing at its entrance, and a woman and a child on the road wave toward the travelers.

The caption is engraved in open capitals below the image, and the imprint beneath it names R. Bowyer at 80 Pall Mall and the year 1809. No artist or engraver is named on the plate; the aquatints in this book are unsigned and are probably the work of William Watts.

The plate belongs to Views in the Ottoman Dominions, in Europe, in Asia, and some of the Mediterranean Islands, from the original drawings taken for Sir Robert Ainslie by Luigi Mayer, printed by T. Bensley for R. Bowyer in London in 1810 with 71 hand colored aquatint plates (Abbey, Travel II, 371; Tooley 321). Luigi Mayer (1755 to 1803) was an Italian born artist who worked in the Ottoman Empire for Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador at Constantinople from 1776 to 1792.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.

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