Rambouillet Merino Ram and Ewe of 1786, Antique Sheep Print, 1873

This antique sheep print shows a Merino ram and ewe in the court of the Bergerie Nationale at Rambouillet, lithographed by F. Lehnert after a drawing made by Marchal in 1786, for the French agricultural album of the Vienna Exposition, 1873. The Rambouillet flock was founded on sheep sent from Spain by royal grant in that year, and this plate reproduces the earliest record of them.

That is exactly why the ministry put it in the Vienna album: it was proof that the state had held the blood for the better part of a century. The plate pairs directly with the 1873 view of the same flock.

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.

It is a tinted lithograph, printed in two stones without hand color, and is otherwise 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 discoloration, including faint staining at the upper right. 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.