Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1845
Sheet size
48.7 × 34 cm (19.2 × 13.4 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-09947
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 condition. Very light age toning in the margins and minimal spotting. The image area is clean and the plate impression is crisp. Original hand-coloring remains vivid and untouched.
About this sheet
A skate seen from above, "La Raie de Gaimard," a hand-colored lithograph from the zoological volumes of the French Voyage en Islande et au Groenland, published in Paris by Arthus Bertrand in 1845. The plate is headed "Zoologie" with "Poissons" and its plate number at the upper right, and the locality "(Islande)" is lettered beneath the title.
The skate fills most of the sheet, drawn flat with its kite-shaped body in dark brown, mottled with pale spots across the wings, its snout pointed and its eyes and spiracles clearly drawn on the upper surface. The pelvic fins stand out at the base of the tail, and the long tail curves downward to the right, banded with pale and dark and ending in two small fins tinted in orange. The old description names Louis Bévalet as the artist and H. Blanchard as the lithographer, and gives the plate as "Poissons, Pl. 2."
The species is named for Joseph Paul Gaimard, a French naval surgeon and naturalist who took part in several voyages of exploration, including the Iceland and Greenland expedition.
