Niagara Falls, Cataracte de Niagara – Early French Engraved View, c.1780

Name: Niagara Falls, Cataracte de Niagara – Early French Engraved View, c.1780
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-14129-31
Price: 225 USD
Availability: InStock

$225

€200 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1780
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 24.2 × 32 cm (9.5 × 12.6 in)
Condition: Good. Good antique condition. The paper shows light overall toning consistent with age, with some vertical and horizontal crease marks visible, likely from original folding. Minor edge wear and a small loss along the lower margin are present.
Period: The Early Republic
Places: New York
Reference: BG-14129-31

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

Niagara Falls in an early French copper engraving, with the caption "Cataracte de Niagara" below the image and the numbering "Tom. XIV" and "N° IX" in the lower margin. The plate is enclosed in a broad ruled border and dates from about 1780.

The view looks across the crest of the falls from the Canadian side, with the whole width of the curtain of water drawn in fine vertical lines. A tall column of rock topped with trees stands in the center of the cataract, a narrower fall drops at the right, and large boulders sit in the spray at the foot. Two small figures in the lower left corner perch on a ledge and give a sense of scale. Behind the brink, the river widens into a lake-like reach with wooded islands, and a few birds cross the sky.

Eighteenth-century views of Niagara like this one were drawn from descriptions and sketches by travelers rather than from the spot, which gives the landscape its stylized trees and rock. The French caption and volume number mark it as a plate from a multi-volume French work of travel.

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