Inhabitants of Norton Bay, Alaska – Antique Hand-Colored Ethnographic Print 1805
€ 210
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1805
Sheet size
22.5 × 13 cm (8.9 × 5.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13696-10
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
Good for age. Wide margins. Minor age toning and small faint spots mostly in blank margin areas. Strong impression with bright original hand-coloring.
About this sheet
The inhabitants of Norton Bay on the coast of Alaska, an original hand-colored engraving titled "Bewooners van de Nortons-Baai", from De Mensch, zoo als hij voorkomt op den bekenden aardbol, the Dutch survey of the world's peoples written by Martinus Stuart and published in Amsterdam around 1805. The drawing is credited "J. Kuyper del." at the lower left, with the engraver's name at the right.
A bearded man stands at the left in a long pale tunic and tall hide boots, holding up a fish in one hand while a second fish hangs from the other. Beside him a woman sits on a rock in a dark fur-trimmed garment, with a pail on her knee, and a small child reaches up toward the fish. Behind them are a turf-roofed shelter, trees and a snow-topped mountain, and a stretch of water crosses the foreground. The coloring is in soft greens, browns and cream over fine stipple engraving.
Norton Bay (Norton Sound) lies on the western coast of Alaska, and the scene derives from the reports of the late eighteenth-century voyages that reached it, which supplied European artists with their only sources for images like this.
