Alicante 1881, Repatriates from Oran Landing - Hand-Coloured Wood Engraving

The crowded quay at Alicante: the steamers “Besós” and “Correo de Cartagena” land the Spanish workers repatriated from Oran, among stacks of barrels, families with bundles and people with parasols. Hand-coloured wood engraving from the illustrated press, mounted in a passe-partout with hand-drawn rules.

It forms a pair with the view of Cartagena and records the same episode: the flight of the esparto-grass labourers after the attack by Bou Amama's bands near Saïda on 11 June 1881. Within a few weeks some ten thousand Spaniards were repatriated, most of them from Almería, Murcia and Alicante.

Medium: Hand-coloured wood engraving (end-grain).
Date: 1881.
Source: Spanish illustrated press.
Dimensions: 7.4 x 10.6 in (18.8 x 27 cm), trimmed sheet, without the mount.
Condition: Good. Clean paper; scattered foxing on the back of the mount. Mounted in a passe-partout with hand-drawn rules.