Hotel de Ville, Paris, Antique Steel Engraving after Thomas Allom, circa 1860
€ 190
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1860
Mapmaker / artist
Thomas Allom (artist), J. Saddler (engraver)
Publisher
The London Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, London
Technique
Steel engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13194-108
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 wear to the top left and bottom right corners. Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Printed image clean.
About this sheet
A detailed steel engraving of the Hotel de Ville in Paris, seen at an angle across the square in front of it. The richly ornamented Renaissance facade, with its rows of arched windows, statues in niches and steep pavilion roofs, stretches from left to right, crowned by a central belfry flying a flag. At far left a tall old house with a projecting shop front frames the view, and the houses of the quarter recede behind.
The square is filled with a military parade: long lines of soldiers stand in formation before the building, officers ride up and down, and a carriage drawn by white horses passes at left. In the foreground ordinary Parisians look on, among them a man bending to tend a shoe for a customer, two women seated on the ground at right, and children and dogs running about.
The building shown is the Hotel de Ville as it stood before it was burned during the Commune in 1871. The plate was drawn by Thomas Allom, the English architect and topographical artist whose views of France and the Continent were widely engraved, and engraved by J. Saddler. It carries the imprint of The London Printing and Publishing Company, Limited.
The technique is steel engraving, with the carved ornament of the facade rendered in remarkable detail and the sky in fine, even ruled lines. The script title sits in the lower margin. The printed image is clean.
Rich in incident, this is a print to study at close range; it would sit well in a hallway or a study, in a dark wood frame with a narrow gilt slip.
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.
