Elegant Costumes of 18th-Century Peru: Hand-Colored Engraving from Bertuch, 1805
€ 110
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1805
Sheet size
23 × 19 cm (9.1 × 7.5 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14000-47
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
The engraving is in good condition with minor foxing along the edges and slight age-related discoloration. The hand-applied colors remain vibrant, bringing each bird to life.
About this sheet
Costumes of Peru, an original hand-colored copper engraving of 1805 from Friedrich Johann Bertuch's Bilderbuch fuer Kinder (Picture Book for Children). The heading is lettered "Trachten VI. Habillemens VI. Garments VI. Vestimenti VI." in German, French, English and Italian, and the five figures are numbered on the sheet.
The top row shows three groups. At the right, Fig. 1 is a couple of Lima in European dress, the man in a red coat with green facings and the woman in a green skirt with a pink shawl and a green hat. In the center, Fig. 2 is a woman of Lima seated on a cushion in a white lace dress with a red shawl and a frilled cap. At the left, Fig. 3 is a pair of Indians in striped garments, one holding a child in a blue shawl. In the lower row, Fig. 4 shows Indians in their best clothes, seen from behind in a blue tunic and a patterned skirt, and Fig. 5 shows people of Quito in a brown poncho and a pink-and-white striped skirt with straw hats.
Bertuch's picture book was issued in twelve volumes from 1790 to 1830, and sheets of costume such as this one gave German children their picture of colonial Spanish America.
