Wandering Arab or Bedouin, Antique Hand-Colored Costume Print, 1854

Wandering Arab or Bedouin, 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 RONDZWERVEND ARABIER OF BEDUIN., which reads in English as wandering Arab or Bedouin. The figure is a bearded man, wrapped against the weather and shown at full length. The coloring is applied by hand over a printed outline.

He stands three-quarters to the right on sandy ground washed in ocher and green, his face in profile under a deep white hood, with a red cap showing at the forehead. A heavy cream cloak is thrown over both shoulders and falls in long folds to his ankles, and a woven pink bag with a lattice pattern hangs at his side from a cord across his chest. In his right hand he holds a dark object with a yellow-edged end, and a long banded shaft that he carries behind him shows above his shoulder at the left and again below the cloak at the right. Brown pointed slippers show under the hem. The hatching of the cloak is left largely in the pale tone of the paper, with the hand color laid in the shadows.

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.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner. Several larger brown marks.

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