Ruins at Samaria, Palestine, Antique View with Hunter and Agaves, circa 1850

A ruin at Samaria in Palestine, an original antique steel engraving, uncolored, circa 1850. The caption reads RUINE zu SAMARIA in Palestina, a ruin at Samaria in Palestine.

A round ruined tower with tall pointed arched openings stands on a rocky rise at the center of the plate, with birds wheeling in the sky to its right and a further ruined building on the slope beyond. A great gnarled tree fills the left side. Beneath it a man in a broad hat holding a long gun walks along the path, and two small figures stand by the rocks in the middle distance. Spiky agaves, tall flowering stems and broad-leaved plants grow across the foreground at the right.

The engraver's credit at lower right reads Ch. Daumerlang sc. Nbg. (Ch. Daumerlang engraved it, Nuremberg). The single imprint line below the caption reads Paris: Institut Bibliographique. No artist is named on the sheet.

The sheet carries no Hildburghausen imprint; its only imprint names the Institut Bibliographique in Paris, and that is all the lettering says about where it was issued. The sheet comes from a dealer's album rather than from a bound set. Samaria was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel.

Handling soiling along the right edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Corners and edges are not shown by this scan. Clean, even paper tone in the margin. One larger brown mark.

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