View at Hadie in the Yemen Coffee Mountains, Antique Print, 1776

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1776, plate LXV of the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's account of his travels in Arabia, a folding plate. The caption reads Gezigt te Hadîe, een Vlek op het Koffy Gebergte. in Dutch and Vûe à Hadîe, Bourg sur les Montagnes, qui produisent le Caffé. in French, meaning "View at Hadie, a small town in the mountains that produce coffee".

A great rocky hill rises at the center, its summit crowned with a block of rock and scrub, with higher mountains behind it at either side. Around its foot the ground is shaped into curving terraces that sweep across the middle of the sheet, and on the right a series of level terraces is held up by stone walls. Tall palms and other trees grow at the base of the hill, where a small flat roofed building stands among them, and a tall building with small windows stands at the far left. Figures are scattered over the terraces: a seated group with spears at the lower left, a man pointing toward the hill, a reclining figure, a standing veiled figure and a child at the center, and men working and talking on the walled terraces at the right.

The lower margin is lettered Baurenfeind, del. at the left and O. de Vries, sculp. at the right. The plate number Tab: LXV. is engraved at the upper right.

The plate comes from the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, Traduit de l'Allemand (translated from the German), published A Amsterdam, chez S. J. Baalde and A Utrecht, chez J. van Schoonhoven & Comp., with the date MDCCLXXVI (1776) on the title page. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive. The expedition's artist, Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind, died at sea in 1763.

Some unevenness along the bottom edge. Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the right edge. Foxing over much of the margin. Folding plate, original center fold as issued.

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