Lake Avernus near Naples, Antique Italian Landscape View, circa 1850
€ 205
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1850
Mapmaker / artist
Joseph Meyer
Publisher
Bibliographisches Institut, Hildburghausen
Technique
Steel Engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-11671-124
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
Handling soiling along the top edge. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Corners and edges are not shown by this scan. Clean, even paper tone in the margin. Several larger brown marks.
About this sheet
This is a view of Lake Avernus near Naples, an original antique steel engraving, uncolored, circa 1850. The caption below the image is lettered LAGO D' AVERNO, Italian for Lake Avernus, in open capitals.
The still, rounded lake fills the middle of the plate, ringed by wooded slopes and a line of cliffs at the right. A small square ruin stands on the far shore at the left beneath a tall, slender tree. Beyond the lake the sea opens out with a mountainous headland and a fortified building on a promontory at the center. In the foreground a small party rests by the path: a woman seated on a mule led by a man in a tall hat, with one man reclining and another seated on the rocks beside them.
No artist or engraver is named under the image. Below the caption the plate carries the house imprint, Aus d. Kunstanst d. Bibliogr. Instit. in Hildbh. at the lower left and Eigenthum der Verleger. at the lower right. The first is the art works of the Bibliographisches Institut in Hildburghausen, the second reads "property of the publishers." The plate number CCCCXXXVIIII is engraved at the top right.
The sheet comes from a dealer's album rather than from a bound set. Its imprint is that of Meyer's Universum, a serial collection of engraved views with descriptive text, published by Joseph Meyer's Bibliographisches Institut at Hildburghausen from 1833, its plates engraved on steel. Lake Avernus fills a volcanic crater west of Naples, and in antiquity it was taken for an entrance to the underworld, as Virgil describes it in the sixth book of the Aeneid.
Handling soiling along the top edge. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Corners and edges are not shown by this scan. Clean, even paper tone in the margin. Several larger brown marks.
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.
