Antique Plan of the City of Sana, Capital of Yemen, 1776
€ 330
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1776
Mapmaker / artist
Carsten Niebuhr; engraved under the direction of C. J. de Huyser
Publisher
S. J. Baalde, Amsterdam, and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp., Utrecht
Technique
Copper engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14407-1-70
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 top left corner is clipped and the bottom left corner is worn. Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and left edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. One larger brown mark.
About this sheet
This is an original antique copper engraving from 1776, plate LXX of the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's account of his travels in Arabia. The caption reads Grondtékening der Stad Saná. in Dutch and Plan de la Ville de Saná. in French, meaning "Plan of the town of Sana", the city now spelled Sanaa.
The walled city fills the center of the plan, its wall drawn with close set towers. Inside, the streets divide the town into stippled blocks, with gardens and trees along the inner side of the wall. At the upper end the wall runs up to a small fortified quarter on a rise, lettered het Kasteel and le Château, and at the lower end a separate walled quarter adjoins the town, with the numbers 1 to 7 marking points along the walls. Below the city a district of houses and gardens is lettered Bîr el Assab. Mountains drawn in heavy hachures fill the top of the plan, lettered Nikkum M., and fields and orchards spread over the rest of the sheet, crossed by tracks and a stream on the right. A compass rose with a fleur-de-lis stands at the upper right.
The lettering C. J. de Huyser f. direx. is engraved at the lower right below the border, naming the engraver who directed the work. The plate number Tab: LXX. is engraved at the upper right.
The plate comes from the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, Traduit de l'Allemand (translated from the German), published A Amsterdam, chez S. J. Baalde and A Utrecht, chez J. van Schoonhoven & Comp., with the date MDCCLXXVI (1776) on the title page. 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. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
The top left corner is clipped and the bottom left corner is worn. Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and left edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. One larger brown mark.
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.
