Original Rare Antique Print of a Ruin in Peru, 1857

Name: Original Rare Antique Print of a Ruin in Peru, 1857
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-10125
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: 1857
Kind: Maps
Size: 21 × 26 cm (8.3 × 10.2 in)
Condition: Good. General age-related toning. Please study image carefully.
Period: Westward Expansion & Civil War
Places: Peru
Reference: BG-10125

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

A ruined stone gateway overgrown by tropical forest, an original steel engraving from Die Kunstwerke vom Alterthum bis auf die Gegenwart by C.A. Menzel, published in 1857. The print is untitled, and a plate number appears in the upper right corner.

The view looks toward a massive stone building with a tall corbelled archway at its center, flanked by lower wings with doorways. The façade is decorated with bands of geometric ornament: lattice panels, stepped frets and projecting moldings. Tall trees and a palm hung with fruit frame the scene on both sides, and roots and shrubs climb over the roofline. In the foreground, two figures, one with a basket, sit at the foot of a fallen stone slab.

The listing places the ruin in Peru, but the architecture shown, with its corbelled vault and carved geometric façade, is that of the Maya region of Mexico and Central America. The engraver has made the stonework dominate the picture, with the people small by comparison to emphasize the age and scale of the building.

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