Antique Mississippi River View – Alton Illinois Steel Engraving, Meyers 1854

Name: Antique Mississippi River View – Alton Illinois Steel Engraving, Meyers 1854
Brand: Meyer
SKU: BG-14038-111
Price: 245 USD
Availability: InStock

$245

€220 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1854
Maker: Meyer
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 14.4 × 23.7 cm (5.7 × 9.3 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition for its age with light age toning and minor foxing mainly in the margins. Plate mark clearly visible. Paper remains strong and stable.
Period: Westward Expansion & Civil War
Places: Illinois
Reference: BG-14038-111

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.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

The river town of Alton, Illinois, seen from the Mississippi, an original steel engraving from Meyers Universum, published by the Bibliographisches Institut in Germany around 1853 to 1854. The plate is printed in black on cream paper and is lettered below the image "Alton am Mississippi (in Illinois)." It appeared as volume 18, plate 24 of the series.

The view looks across a broad, calm stretch of the river toward the town, which rises on the bluffs along the far bank. Church spires and warehouses crowd the waterfront, where steamboats lie at the landing, and a large sailing craft with a lowered mast and a handful of crew sits at the left foreground, with a second sailing boat out on the water and a small rowboat nearer the center. Trees frame the right edge, and low clouds fill the sky.

Alton, just north of St. Louis, was a river port for lead, stone, timber and farm produce in the mid-19th century. It later hosted the last of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, on October 15, 1858.

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