Asia
Antique prints of Asia
Our antique prints of Asia date from 1785 to 1898 and reach from the Holy Land to Japan. Jerusalem and the biblical sites are the largest group, in steel engravings by Charles Cousen, Edward Goodall and Samuel Bradshaw and in coloured prints published at Munich by Bruch and Meermann in 1861. Persia follows, with plates from the Lemaître workshop of 1841, and there are views of India, Canton and Japanese scenes in wood engraving.
The Orientalist illustrators of the nineteenth century travelled with the archaeologists and diplomats, and their prints are still the most accessible period images of these regions.
All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.
Subcategories
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China
Antique prints of China
Our antique prints of China are three steel engravings of around 1843, at the moment when the Opium War opened the Chinese ports to European illustrators: a hand-coloured view of Tiger Island on the Canton river by Edward Goodall, Canton by Rouargue, and the hall of audience known as the Ting by Bigant, from the French series directed by Lemaître.
Views of this kind, published in London and Paris in the 1840s, fixed the European image of China for the rest of the century and are collected for their delicate engraving and hand colouring.
All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.
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Holy Land: Israel and...
Antique prints of the Holy Land
Our antique prints of the Holy Land cover Israel and Palestine from 1842 to 1898, with Jerusalem at the centre: a large folding panoramic wood engraving of 1898, a steel engraving by Rouargue published in Paris, and coloured views printed at Munich in 1861 of the tomb of King David, the valley of Jehoshaphat and the city from the north-east. Bethlehem appears in a hand-coloured engraving by Poppel and Kurz; Charles Cousen and Samuel Bradshaw engraved the biblical landscapes.
These prints appeal to collectors of Orientalism and to anyone with a personal or religious attachment to these places.
All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.
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Arabia and the Middle...
Antique Views of Arabia and the Middle East
Original hand-coloured engravings from 1861 to 1878, most engraved by Charles Cousen, showing Damascus, the cedars of Lebanon and the gorge of Wadi Shuaib in the Valley of Jethro. These plates come from the great illustrated travel books that introduced Victorian readers to the region.
They interest collectors of Orientalist prints and readers drawn to biblical geography, as well as anyone looking for a period image of the Levant for a study or library wall. Every print sold is an original of its time, with a technical sheet detailing paper, technique and measurements.
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Japan
Antique prints of Japan
Our antique prints of Japan are wood engravings from the French illustrated press of 1867 to 1879, when Japan had only just opened to the West: a tea house after Émile Bayard (1867), the main street of Yedo, today's Tokyo, by Charles Laplante (1879), a theatre scene and the interior of a Buddhist temple in Yedo. Several derive from the drawings of the Swiss envoy Aimé Humbert, whose account of Japan was widely read in Europe.
These prints show the first European view of Meiji Japan, before photography replaced the engraver.
All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.
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India
Antique prints of India
Our antique prints of India date from 1785 to 1841. The earliest is an eighteenth-century engraving of the castle of Surat; the nineteenth century brings Colgong on the Ganges engraved by Edward Goodall after J. M. W. Turner (1836), the temple of Ganesha at Benares (1839), the shore temple of Mahabalipuram near Madras in steel engraving (1841), and Hindu fakirs engraved by R. Bell after Bernard Picart. Thomas Jeavons is also represented.
Turner's Indian views, worked up in England from sketches by others, are a curiosity prized by collectors of both the artist and the subject.
All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.
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Persia (Iran)
Antique prints of Persia
Our antique prints of Persia, today's Iran, are steel engravings of 1841 from the Paris workshop of Auguste Lemaître, engraved by S. Cholet, Alès and Mauduit after drawings by Vernier and others: the caravanserai of Kashan, the bridge of Mianeh, the ruins of Sultaniyeh, the rock reliefs of Taq-e Bostan, the king on his throne and a Persian king with attendants at Persepolis.
Made for a French encyclopaedic series on the nations of the world, these small plates are among the most accessible early European images of Qajar Persia and its ancient sites.
All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.
