Palestine

Original single-sheet steel engraving of a very fine quality. Overall size ca. 215 x 270 mm. Image size ca. 130 x 190 mm. A three-line caption engraved at bottom in elegant handtooled open-face and italic types. Engraved Artist's and Engraver's signatures underneath image. Engraved Publisher's line below. The print is in its original state, trimmed and gilded on three sides. It is printed with warmer ink, somewhat more dramatic in mood, with fine, crisp detail, subtlety and elegance. In overall very good condition. (Some spotting.) Preserved in pH-balanced, acid-free Renaissance archival paper. ~ A delicately executed steel engraving, representing a major illustrative work on 19th century Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. William Henry Bartlett (born London, 1809) was one of the foremost illustrators of topography of his generation. He travelled extensively throughout Britain, the Americas, and the Middle East, producing his work on location. In 1854 he made his last trip to the Holy Land; he died of fever on board a French ship on his return voyage to England. Bartlett's primary concern was to extract the picturesque aspects of a place and render "lively impressions of actual sights", as he wrote in the preface to "The Nile Boat" (London, 1849). His work became widely known through the numerous engravings after the original drawings and paintings he made. The interest in these engravings today is as much for the exquisite quality of the rendering and presentation of the architecture of the period, as it is for the representation of the landscape. Published in 1836 by Peter Jackson, Late Fisher, Son & Co. of London, it was originally accompanied by descriptions written by John Carne.