Shipka Pass in the Russo-Turkish War, Hand Colored Lithograph, circa 1877

An original antique lithograph with original hand color, circa 1877, laid down on a dark card mount. The mount is lettered in gilt below the image "Schipka Pass. 1877." (Shipka Pass, 1877). The image itself carries no title.

The view looks across bare ridges toward three summits crowned with earthworks and small red flags. Telegraph poles follow the road along the crest, smoke from gunfire drifts across the slopes, and in the middle distance a camp of white tents stands under a flag with a red cross, where stretcher bearers carry wounded men toward a covered wagon. On the right a party of soldiers gathers and carries stones on the hillside.

In the foreground a column of cavalry with lances and infantry with shouldered rifles moves along the mountain road from the right, a shell bursts in the road in front of them, and a gun carriage is drawn along the edge of a steep drop at the left. Further troops and smoke fill the valley at the far left.

No artist, printer or publisher is named on the image or on the mount, and the place and exact date of printing are not recorded; the year 1877 on the mount is the year of the event shown. The Shipka Pass carries a road across the Balkan range in central Bulgaria. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 and 1878 Russian and Bulgarian forces held the pass against repeated Ottoman attacks.

Laid on a dark card mount; the sheet beneath was not examined. All four corners complete.

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