Antique Print of Gold Washing in Brazil by Payne '1847'
€ 150
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1847
Sheet size
27 × 20 cm (10.6 × 7.9 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-10098
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
General age-related toning, shows minor wear and creasing. Blank verso. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
Gold washing in Brazil, an original steel engraving from Payne's Universum, published in 1847. The plate is titled "Gold Washing in the Brazils" in script beneath the image and carries a London imprint at the foot.
The scene fills a narrow upright frame. A steep, wooded ravine opens at the center, with a waterfall at the left and another at the right, and palm trees against the cliffs. At the bottom of the picture a crowd of workers stands in and beside the stream, some bent over to wash gravel in pans and troughs, others at the right raising tools above their heads, while overseers and figures near a large boulder look on. Fine engraved shading gives the rocks and the vegetation a deep tonal range.
Brazil's gold fields in Minas Gerais drew thousands of enslaved workers and prospectors from the eighteenth century onward, and the engraving presents this labor to a European public of armchair travelers.
