Turkic Woman of Tomsk, Siberia, Antique Hand-Colored Costume Print, 1854

Turkic Woman of Tomsk, an original antique hand colored print of 1854 from the second volume of Heinrich Berghaus's work on the peoples of the world in its Dutch edition. The plate is captioned in Dutch TURKIN VAN TOMSK., which reads in English as Turkic woman of Tomsk. The figure is a woman, standing at full length and seen from the front. The coloring is applied by hand over a printed outline.

She looks out at the viewer with her hands clasped at her waist. A small cap in segments of yellow, blue and red sits on her head, and over it a large white shawl falls around her face and over her shoulders to below her waist. Beneath it she wears a long red coat spotted in a darker tone and edged down the front and around the hem with fur, open over a yellow bodice fastened with buttons and a pale blue gown that reaches to her feet. Yellow shoes show at the hem, and she stands on a strip of hatched ground.

The caption is the only lettering on the sheet. No artist, lithographer or printer is named on the plate, and it carries no plate number. The figure stands on the plain paper of the page with no frame line, and the caption is printed in small capitals below.

The plate comes from the second volume 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. Tomsk, on the Tom River in western Siberia, was founded in 1604.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Foxing over much of the margin. All four corners read as present in the scan. Several larger brown marks.

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