Close-ups
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
Melrose Abbey, Scotland, Antique Steel Engraving after Birket Foster, circa 1876
Anno Domini MDCCCLXXVIcirca 1876
€420
$470 · £355
Original print, not a reproduction
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- circa 1876
- Technique
- Steel engraving
- Coloring
- Uncolored
- Condition
- Good. Light age toning; light handling soiling along the edges and a few small spots in the margins. Printed image clean.
- Faith
- Christianity
- Collection
- Houses of Worship
- Era
- 1850 and after, Chromolithographs and devotional prints
- Stock no.
- BG-13194-44
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.
The roofless interior of Melrose Abbey seen at night. Tall clustered columns and pointed arches frame the view at the left, and at the center the great traceried window rises to its full height, its slender mullions silhouetted against a bright, silvery sky. A smaller window at the right glows in the same light. Above, torn clouds drift across the opening where the vault once stood, and ivy climbs the broken walls. On the floor, fallen stones, a low tomb and scattered plants lie half in shadow, with brambles and leaves in the foreground.
Melrose Abbey, in the Scottish Borders, is one of the finest ruined abbeys in Scotland, and its late Gothic window tracery is especially admired. Sir Walter Scott made it famous with his lines advising the visitor to see "fair Melrose" by pale moonlight, and this view takes him at his word, with the light pouring through the window as if from the moon. The lettering credits Birket Foster as the painter at lower left and A. Willmore as the engraver at lower right; Foster was one of the most popular English landscape illustrators of the Victorian era, and Arthur Willmore an accomplished engraver of landscape. The title is engraved in copperplate script, with the imprint Cassell, Petter and Galpin, the London publisher, beneath it.
The print is a steel engraving. The engraver handles the contrast between the dark stone and the luminous sky with great delicacy, using closely spaced lines to model the columns and leaving the window openings nearly white.
An atmospheric upright for a hallway, a stair or a study, it would look especially good in a dark frame that echoes its nocturnal mood.
Condition: Light age toning; light handling soiling along the edges and a few small spots in the margins. Printed image clean.
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.
