Road over the Balkan Mountain with Caravan, Antique Aquatint, 1809

An original antique aquatint with original hand color, 1809, one of the views drawn by Luigi Mayer and published in London by Robert Bowyer. The caption engraved below the image reads "ROAD OVER THE BALKAN MOUNTAIN".

A long procession winding over a mountain pass. On the steep road at the left two closed carriages, one red and one yellow, are drawn up the slope by teams of horses, with a covered wagon higher up near the crest. Riders in turbans and colored robes and men on foot fill the road in the foreground.

Near the center a rider carries a tall green standard, and a man on foot with a staff points the way ahead. At the right the column follows a second track past another covered wagon, under bare mountains in the distance.

No artist or engraver is named on the plate, and it carries no plate number. The caption is engraved in open capitals below the image, and beneath it a publication line in script gives the publisher Robert Bowyer, his address at 80 Pall Mall, and the date 1809. The plate comes from 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). In the book each plate was accompanied by a page of descriptive text in French and English. The plates are unsigned; the aquatint work is probably by William Watts. Luigi Mayer (1755 to 1803) was an Italian born artist who worked in the Ottoman Empire for Sir Robert Ainslie, British ambassador at Constantinople. The Balkan Mountains run east to west across Bulgaria and give the Balkan peninsula its name.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, left and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top right corners. Several larger brown marks.

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