Mary Stuart, Antique Hand Colored Portrait Print, circa 1882
€ 230
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1882
Mapmaker / artist
After a miniature in the Gaignieres collection
Publisher
F. Roy, editeur, 185 rue Saint-Antoine, Paris
Technique
Woodcut
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
28.5 × 20 cm (11.2 × 7.9 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13382-75
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 left, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.
About this sheet
This original antique hand-colored wood engraving shows Mary Stuart, a plate from Augustin Challamel's La France et les Francais a travers les siecles, Paris, circa 1882. Mary Stuart standing full length in a close bodied gown with a high ruff and a heart shaped cap, taken from a miniature in the Gaignieres collection in the print room of the Bibliotheque imperiale and dated on the sheet 1550 to 1566.
The plate belongs to La France et les Francais a travers les siecles by Augustin Challamel, published in Paris by F. Roy at 185 rue Saint-Antoine about 1882. It comes from the suite headed Costumes civils et militaires des Francais a travers les siecles, which runs through the work and illustrates French civil and military dress from Gaul to the nineteenth century. Much of the original drawing was done by Edmond Lechevalier-Chevignard, working from manuscripts, tapestries and paintings named on the sheets themselves. The plates of this suite are headed Costumes civils et militaires des Francais a travers les siecles across the top of the sheet, numbered at the lower left and signed F. Roy, editeur at the lower right, with the engraver's name cut small into the lower margin of the block on many of them. The ground is left plain so that the figures carry the whole weight of the design.
Mary Stuart is the most collected sitter in sixteenth century portraiture, and a full length drawn from a contemporary Gaignieres miniature rather than from the familiar studio types is genuinely uncommon. The color and the plain ground make this an easy sheet to frame, and a group of three or four from the same series hung together gives a hallway or a dressing room a strong and coherent line of French historical color.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.
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.
