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 and spotting; faint stains and a pencil inscription in the lower margin; small crease to the upper left corner. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
This original steel engraving is a portrait of Bentzel-Sternau, lettered in shaded capitals within an engraved cartouche beneath the image. It was issued by the Bibliographisches Institut of Hildburghausen as a plate for Meyer's Conversations-Lexikon, the great German encyclopedia of the 1840s, and it reproduces a portrait painted by Anton Graff in 1793.
The sitter is shown half length, turned to the right, with his hair brushed loosely back. He wears a high white stock wrapped several times around the neck, a frilled shirt, a waistcoat and a broad lapeled coat, with a small cross of an order hanging from a ribbon at his breast. The portrait sits in a dark rectangular field within a ruled frame decorated at each corner with a rosette, and an elaborate calligraphic flourish surrounds the name below.
The lettering reads "Graff pinxt. 1793" at the lower left of the frame and "Nordheim sc." at the lower right, naming the painter Anton Graff, the leading portraitist of Dresden, and the engraver Johann Georg Nordheim. Above the frame at the upper left is the series line "Mr Conv. Lex. No 151", and below the cartouche the imprint "Inst. Bibl. exc." for the Bibliographisches Institut, the publishing house founded by Joseph Meyer.
Karl Christian Ernst, Count von Bentzel-Sternau (1767 to 1849), was born in Mainz and served the Electorate of Mainz, Baden and the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, where he became minister of state and of finance in 1811. He was also a novelist and editor, often compared in his own day with Jean Paul, and a liberal delegate to the Bavarian chamber in the 1820s.
Steel plates allowed Meyer to print large editions of fine portraits for his subscribers, and this impression is crisp, with a deep black ground and clear detail in the stock and coat. The sheet has wide margins and would frame well in a narrow dark molding with a generous 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.
