Original Antique Woodcut of Peru and Quito from Gottfried's America, c.1655

Name: Original Antique Woodcut of Peru and Quito from Gottfried's America, c.1655
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-14303-19
Price: 475 USD
Availability: InStock

$475

€425 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1655
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 30.8 × 19.5 cm (12.1 × 7.7 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition considering its age. General age-related toning, occasional light foxing, original folds as issued and minor handling wear. Please study the image carefully.
Period: Colonial America
Places: Peru
Reference: BG-14303-19

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

Peru, a page from Johann Ludwig Gottfried's Newe Welt und Americanische Historien, published in Frankfurt am Main by the heirs of Matthäus Merian, around 1655. The sheet carries the running head "Peru." and a page number at the top, an illustration across the upper third, and a block of German letterpress below.

The illustration is an imagined tropical scene. In the foreground a standing man in a patterned tunic and feathered headdress, seen from behind, holds a staff and gestures across the water. At the right a second figure with a feather headdress and belt stands beneath a palm, and a group of seated figures gathers at the left. A river drops over a ledge in the middle distance, and small figures cross bridges and walk on the far bank among rocks and trees.

The text beneath describes the city of Quito and its surroundings: its streets, markets, churches and monasteries, and the trade in cloth, flax and salt. Marginal notes at the right name "Das Schloss Tomebamba" and the Inca house of the sun ("Das Götzenhaus der Sonnen"). Gottfried's work was a large illustrated compilation of voyages and histories of the Americas and one of the main sources of images of the New World for German readers.

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