The Great Wine Barrel at Heidelberg, Antique Engraving after Chapuy, circa 1860
€ 145
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1860
Mapmaker / artist
Chapuy (artist), A.H. Payne (engraver)
Publisher
The London Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, London
Technique
Steel engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13194-97
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 steel engraving of the Great Wine Barrel at Heidelberg, the celebrated giant cask in the cellar of Heidelberg Castle. The barrel fills the right half of the image, its enormous round end decorated with a carved cartouche of arms and a row of carved brackets, resting on a heavy timber cradle. To the left, a vaulted stone cellar recedes into shadow, with ordinary barrels lined up in the depths for scale, and a barred window at far left.
Victorian visitors give the scene its charm: a gentleman in a top hat and his young son, a lady in a wide crinoline beside a companion, another gentleman leaning on his cane with a spotted dog at his feet as he gazes up at the cask, and a solitary figure walking out at left. Light falls from the left across the flagstone floor, picking out the figures against the dark vault.
The Heidelberg Tun has drawn visitors to the castle since the eighteenth century, and it was a fixture of every tour along the Neckar and the Rhine. The plate is lettered "The Great Wine Barrel at Heidelberg" in copperplate script, drawn by Chapuy and engraved by A.H. Payne, and it carries the imprint of The London Printing and Publishing Company, Limited.
The technique is steel engraving, with the rough stone of the vault suggested by wavy, broken lines and the polished wood of the barrel in tight curved hatching. Fine detail in the costumes points to the middle of the nineteenth century. The printed image is clean.
A witty choice for a wine cellar, a tasting room or a kitchen with a German or Rhine theme, it would look right in a dark oak frame with an ivory mat.
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.
