Elephanta Cave Sculpture at Station 9, Antique Niebuhr Print, 1780
€ 340
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1780
Mapmaker / artist
Carsten Niebuhr
Publisher
S. J. Baalde, Amsterdam, and Barthelemy Wild, Utrecht
Technique
Copper engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Sheet size
28 × 22 cm (11.0 × 8.7 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14407-2-10
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and left edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners are present. Several larger brown marks.
About this sheet
This is an original antique copper engraving from 1780, a carved relief from the cave temple on Elephanta. The caption reads Afbeelding der Figuuren by 9 op den platten Grond, Pl. III. in Dutch and Réprésentation des Figures près de 9 Sur le Plan, Pl. III. in French, meaning "Representation of the figures at 9 on the ground plan, plate III".
A single figure with many arms dominates the plate, shown from the thighs up with the legs broken off. It wears a tall headdress set against a round halo, large earrings and a heavy necklace, and its mouth is open. The two uppermost arms stretch out to either side and hold up a cloth like a canopy above the head. On the left one hand grasps a long straight sword and another holds a small human figure by the leg; on the right one hand rings a bell and another holds a shallow bowl. A serpent coils at the lower right of the body, and a long string of beads hangs from the shoulder across the body. Above the figure the cracked rock face is drawn in fine wavy lines. The numbers in the caption refer to the numbered positions on the ground plan of the cave temple at Elephanta, engraved as plate III (Tab. III) of the same volume.
No artist's or engraver's name is printed on this sheet. It is lettered "Tab. X." at the upper right.
The plate comes from the second volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, the French translation printed for S. J. Baalde at Amsterdam and Barthelemy Wild at Utrecht; the title page of the volume reads TOME SECOND and is dated MDCCLXXX. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen, and this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht. 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.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and left edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners are present. Several larger brown marks.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
