Young Woman of Bornu, Lake Chad Region, Antique Hand-Colored Print, 1854

A young woman of Bornu, an original antique hand colored print of 1854, the coloring applied by hand over a printed outline. The caption below the figure reads JEUGDIG MEISJE UIT BORNU., meaning Young girl from Bornu.

She stands full length, facing the viewer, on a small patch of ground with a cast shadow and a few green leaves at the left. A red band with a white disc ornament is bound around her head, and her dark hair falls in strands to her shoulders. She wears several necklaces of red and dark beads and bracelets on both wrists. A blue wrap is draped over one shoulder and drawn up at the hip over a long pale skirt, and she wears sandals. Her left hand, drawn across her body, holds a short whisk of white feathers on a red handle at her chest, and her right hand lifts a fold of the blue wrap at her 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. The kingdom of Bornu lay to the west of Lake Chad. It was described for European readers by the British mission of Dixon Denham and Hugh Clapperton in the 1820s.

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.