Strasburg Cathedral, Alsace, Steel Engraving after B. Foster, circa 1865

This antique steel engraving of Strasbourg, lettered with the old English spelling "Strasburg.", shows the soaring spire of the cathedral rising above a canal side market, with boats moored along the water and townspeople going about their business. It was drawn by B. Foster, engraved by A. Willmore and published by William Mackenzie of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The cathedral of Notre Dame at Strasbourg, with its single north spire completed in 1439, was the tallest building in the world for more than two centuries, and it remained one of the great sights of any journey up the Rhine. The artist places it at the head of an upright composition so that the spire towers over the gabled houses, the trees of the square and the crowded quay below. On the water a boatman poles a flat boat loaded with baskets, cloth hangs from a window at the left, and two figures, one in a wide straw hat, rest on the bank in the right foreground.

The plate is lettered "B. Foster." at lower left and "A. Willmore." at lower right, with the imprint "William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh & Glasgow." beneath the title. The engraver is Arthur Willmore, a prolific English steel engraver and younger brother of James Tibbitts Willmore, who worked extensively for illustrated books and art journals. Mackenzie was a Glasgow publisher of illustrated subscription books issued in parts, and the plate carries no date; circa 1865 matches his steel engraved topographical plates of the 1860s.

The print is an uncolored steel engraving in upright format, finely worked in the tracery of the spire, the billowing clouds and the reflections on the water. Strasbourg Cathedral is a popular subject for collectors of Gothic architecture, of Alsace and of Rhine scenery, and this plate looks handsome framed in a narrow dark molding in a hallway, stairwell or study, where its tall format can be used to good effect.

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