Goldfish Varieties of Peking, Antique Chromolithograph of Carp, 1855
€ 365
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1855
Mapmaker / artist
Stepan Basilewsky, with the figures painted from nature by a Chinese artist
Publisher
Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou, Moscow
Technique
Chromolithograph
Coloring
Printed color
Sheet size
28 × 21 cm (11.0 × 8.3 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14475-1-5
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
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the left edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.
About this sheet
This is an original antique chromolithographed plate of Chinese fishes, the fifth of the nine plates of Basilewsky's Ichthyographia Chinae Borealis. This is the goldfish plate. Three ornamental varieties of Cyprinus auratus are drawn across the sheet, lettered Varietates Cyprini aurati, with the plain wild form of Cyprinus auratus below them and Cyprinus quadrilobatus, the four lobed variety, at the foot. All are printed in warm orange and red against the paper, and the sheet is lettered Tabula the fifth.
The sheet is one of the nine plates of Ichthyographia Chinae Borealis by Stepan Basilewsky, a physician of the Russian ecclesiastical mission at Peking, published in 1855 in the tenth volume of the Nouveaux Memoires of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow. The figures were painted from nature by a Chinese artist and printed in color by Bachmann of Moscow.
Goldfish were bred in China for a thousand years before Europe saw them and this plate shows the fancy Peking varieties drawn from life by a Chinese painter, veil tails, blunt heads and all. It is much the most decorative sheet in the volume and the obvious one to frame for a kitchen, a hallway or a child's room, where the color carries from across the room. A plate of this kind frames well in plain dark wood and sits happily in a kitchen, a study or a hallway, alone or in a run with its companions.
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the left edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.
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.
