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Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look, drawn to its real size; it is sold unframed unless the description says otherwise.
Houses of Worship
Elephanta Cave Sculpture at Station 7, Antique Niebuhr Print, 1780
Anno Domini MDCCLXXX1780
€340
$385 · £285
Original print, not a reproduction
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat or rolled, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- 1780
- Technique
- Copper engraving
- Coloring
- Uncolored
- Condition
- Good. Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom.
- Faith
- Hinduism
- Collection
- Houses of Worship
- Era
- 1700 to 1799, Mortier, Picart and the illustrated Bible
- Stock no.
- BG-14407-2-9
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.
This is an original antique copper engraving from 1780, a carved relief panel from the cave temple on Elephanta. The caption reads Afbeelding der Figuuren by 7 op den platten Grond, Pl. III. in Dutch and Réprésentation des Figures près de 7 sur le Plan, Pl. III. in French, meaning "Representation of the figures at 7 on the ground plan, plate III".
At the center of the lower half a tall figure in a high crowned headdress, with a halo shaped slab behind the head, holds the hand of a smaller female figure standing to the left. Behind her stands a woman in a tall headdress with her hand on the smaller figure's shoulder, and at the far left a figure holds a round pot, with a small seated figure below. On the right a figure in a tall headdress raises a sprig of leaves, above two small figures close together. The upper part of the panel is filled with smaller figures, seated, kneeling and floating across the rock, some with raised hands. The rock surface is drawn in fine stippling and hatching, with cracks running through it. The numbers in the caption refer to the numbered positions on the ground plan of the cave temple at Elephanta, engraved as plate III (Tab. III) of the same volume.
No artist's or engraver's name is printed on this sheet. It is lettered "Tab. IX." at the upper right.
This sheet belongs to the second volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, issued at Amsterdam by S. J. Baalde and at Utrecht by Barthelemy Wild, with MDCCLXXX on its title page. Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom.
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.
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