The King of Boussa, Niger River, Antique Hand-Colored Portrait Print, 1854

The king of Boussa on the Niger, an original antique hand colored print of 1854, the coloring applied by hand over a printed outline. The caption below the figure reads KONING VAN BOUSSA., meaning King of Boussa.

The king stands full length, facing the viewer, on a small patch of sandy ground with a few stones. He wears a tall red turban and a necklace of small red beads. His knee length tunic is striped in green and red and patterned with flowers, with wide sleeves turned back over white cuffs, and it is bound at the waist with a long red sash whose ends hang to the knee. Below it he wears full red trousers gathered at the ankle and soft yellow boots. His right hand rests at his waist and his left arm hangs at his side.

No artist, lithographer or publisher is named on the plate, and there is no plate number above or below the image; the printed caption is the only lettering on the sheet.

The plate comes from the second volume, the Tweede Deel, of De Volken van den Aardbodem, the Dutch edition of Heinrich Berghaus's illustrated work on the peoples of the world, translated from the German by M. J. van Oven and published at Gorinchem by J. Noorduyn en Zoon in 1854. The title page of the volume announces 120 extra fine plates colored after nature. Berghaus was a German geographer, best known for his Physikalischer Atlas. Boussa, now Bussa in Nigeria, stands on the Niger River. The Scottish explorer Mungo Park lost his life in the rapids of the Niger at Bussa in 1806.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.

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