Roman Ships, Prows, Coins and a Loading Scene from Trajan's Column, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a double page folding plate from Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures. The upper left holds parts of ships: carved prows and rams with animal heads, a curved stern, an animal head in a frame and a carved stern post, with an octagonal gem showing a ship with figures and a sail. Below them a boat full of men with shields, a ship with a tower, four coins with oared ships and two diagrams of stepped lines for banks of oars. At the upper right four boat scenes show a boat loaded with bales, a boat loaded with three barrels, two men loading barrels into a boat, and a man standing in an oared galley with an arched cabin. The large scene at the foot shows men carrying sacks, a shield and loads down to two boats beside a round tower and buildings, an oared galley with a crew of rowers, and standard bearers and men in cloaks massed on the quay.

The captions read "Fabretti" under four prows, "Arsenal de Genes" under the animal head, "Beger" twice, and "Trajan's Pillar" under the four boat scenes, the ship with the tower and the large scene. Three coins are lettered FELICITATI. AVG, FELI. CITATI AVG and COS. III. P. P. The figures are numbered 1 to 21. The corners read "Vol IV" at foot left and "Plate 44" at foot right; at top right "Page 13" is legible, the last digit worn.

"Trajan's Pillar" is Trajan's Column in Rome. Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar; his L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures appeared in Paris in 1719, and this English translation by David Humphreys was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. Volume four ends with shipping, and this sheet belongs to that section.

It suits a room with a maritime theme.

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