Antique Print of a Winter House in Greenland, 1768
€ 230
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1768
Mapmaker / artist
Prevost
Sheet size
25 × 17.5 cm (9.8 × 6.9 in)
Reference
BG-12645-42
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
Very good, general age-related toning. Minor wear and soiling, blank verso. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
A winter house of the Greenlanders, shown in plan and in cross section, an original copper engraving drawn and engraved by B.L. Prevost for the Histoire generale des voyages by Antoine Francois Prevost d'Exiles, dated 1768. The upper half is lettered "Plan d'une Maison d'Hiver, des Groenlandois, pour trois Familles" and the lower "Coupe sur la longueur d'une Maison d'Hiver".
The plan shows a long, narrow dwelling entered through a passage, with three raised platforms ("estrades ou lits") for the three families, each with its own lamp and window, and a key of numbered items below it. In the section drawing, the long low house has a flat roof carried on posts, with families seated and standing inside near their lamps and pots hung over them. A man with a long staff stands in the foreground, and another figure walks at the left among the snow-streaked hills.
The print gives European readers a precise idea of how a Greenland family lived through the winter, and it is a useful reference for the early ethnography of the Arctic. Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of North America.
