Dancing Girls and Their Musicians at Cairo, Antique Print, 1776
€ 350
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1776
Mapmaker / artist
Carsten Niebuhr; drawn by Baurenfeind, engraved by C. F. Fritsch
Publisher
S. J. Baalde, Amsterdam, and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp., Utrecht
Technique
Copper engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Sheet size
22 × 26 cm (8.7 × 10.2 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14407-1-27
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. Handling soiling along the bottom and left edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the top right corner. Several larger brown marks.
About this sheet
This is an original antique copper engraving from 1776, plate XXVII of volume 1 of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie. The caption reads, in Dutch and then in French, Afbeelding der Dansseressen en haarer Muzikanten te Káhira. and Représentation des Danseuses et de Leurs Musiciens à Káhira., meaning "Picture of the Dancing Women and Their Musicians at Cairo".
The scene is set outdoors on open ground under a cloudy sky, with a group of date palms at the right. In the middle two dancing women lean back with their arms raised high, small cymbals held in their fingers, their long robes swinging and sashes at the waist. To the left two women in long veils and wraps stand watching, one of them stretching out a hand toward the dancers. The musicians sit at the right. A veiled woman holds a round frame drum, and beside her a bearded man in a turban plays a stringed instrument held upright on a spike. In the right foreground another veiled figure sits on the ground with her back half turned, holding a long stemmed pipe whose bowl rests on the ground beside a small puff of smoke.
Under the lower left corner of the image is lettered "Baurenfeind, del." and under the lower right "C. F. Fritsch, fec." The plate number Tab: XXVII. is engraved upright along the right margin, beside the border.
The sheet comes from the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, the Tome Premier, translated from the German and issued at Amsterdam by S. J. Baalde and at Utrecht by J. van Schoonhoven and Comp., with the date MDCCLXXVI on its title page. 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. The expedition's artist, Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind, died at sea in 1763.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom and left edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the top right corner. 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.
