Bonn, Rhine Harvest Scene after Birket Foster, Steel Engraving, circa 1872
€ 185
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1872
Mapmaker / artist
B. Foster (artist), T.A. Prior (engraver)
Publisher
William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh and Glasgow
Technique
Steel engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14391-18
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 for its age. Light toning, a few small spots to the upper left margin and a faint gray smudge to the lower right margin. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
A fine steel engraving of Bonn on the Rhine, lettered "Bonn" beneath the image, with the credits "B. Foster" at lower left for the artist, the English watercolorist Myles Birket Foster, and "T.A. Prior" at lower right for the engraver, Thomas Abiel Prior. The imprint at the foot reads "William Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh & Glasgow". The plate appeared in Captain H. M. Hozier's history The Franco-Prussian War, published by Mackenzie in 1872.
The view is taken from a hillside above the town at harvest time. In the foreground a group of country people rest and work beside a wagon heaped with hay and drawn by a team of oxen, while a man stands on top of the load and others lie in the shade of the sheaves, with rakes and baskets scattered on the ground. To the left a wooded slope with tall trees falls away into the valley. Beyond, the roofs of Bonn spread across the plain, dominated by the tall spire and towers of the minster, and the broad Rhine and distant hills close the horizon under a great sky of drifting clouds.
Bonn, the old residence of the Electors of Cologne and seat of the university founded in 1818, was the gateway to the most scenic stretch of the Rhine for travelers coming upriver from Cologne. Birket Foster was celebrated for his gentle rural scenes, and his drawing combines a town view with the kind of country idyll for which he was best known. Prior, one of the finest landscape engravers of the Victorian period, translates it into a wide range of tones, from the dark foreground figures to the luminous distance.
This view will appeal to collectors of Rhineland views and of English steel engraving, and it would look attractive framed simply in a sitting room or study, alone or with other German views.
Condition: Good condition for its age. Light toning, a few small spots to the upper left margin and a faint gray smudge to the lower right margin. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
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.
