Old Engraving of Mexican Festivities and Rituals in the Age of Discovery, 1794

Name: Old Engraving of Mexican Festivities and Rituals in the Age of Discovery, 1794
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13597-62
Price: 200 USD
Availability: InStock

$200

€180 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1794
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 22.5 × 23.5 cm (8.9 × 9.3 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition. Visible signs of aging such as edge wear, paper browning, and foxing spots (outside the image) are apparent. Most wear and creases around the edges. Thin paper. Please study the image carefully.
Period: The Early Republic
Places: Mexico
Reference: BG-13597-62

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 Rejoicings of the Mexicans at the beginning of the Age, an original copper engraving from Portlock's New Collection of Voyages and Travels, published in London in 1794 by Alex. Hogg at the King's Arms, No. 16 Paternoster Row. The caption beneath the image reads "The Rejoicings of the Mexicans, at the beginning of the Age."

Dancers fill the foreground in a loose circle: men in plumed headdresses and loincloths, and at the center a woman in a feathered skirt who is led by the hand. At the left two drummers kneel beside an upright drum, one of them holding curved sticks. At the right a stepped pyramid with a domed shrine rises beside the dancers, and a smaller group dances on a terrace in the background beneath a palm tree, with the sea beyond.

The subject refers to the Aztec ceremony marking the start of a new cycle of years, a favorite scene for European illustrators who knew Mexico only through the written accounts of the conquest.

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