Rare Hand-Colored Antique Engraving of A Greenland Shark, 1842

1842 · Views & Engravings

Rare Hand-Colored Antique Engraving of A Greenland Shark, 1842

Name: Rare Hand-Colored Antique Engraving of A Greenland Shark, 1842
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: PCT-57765
Price: 1065 USD
Availability: InStock

$1,065

€950 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1842
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 35.5 × 54 cm (14 × 21.3 in)
Condition: Good. Condition report: Strong impression with excellent tonal detail. Wide margins present, with light age toning and scattered foxing, mostly in the background, not affecting the image. Plate mark clearly visible.
Period: Westward Expansion & Civil War
Reference: PCT-57765

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 Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), known in French as "Le Lémargue Boréal," an original hand-colored lithograph from Paul Gaimard's Voyage en Islande et au Groenland, published in Paris in 1842. The plate was drawn by Louis Bévalet and lithographed by J. Bernard, and the title, French name and scientific name are lettered beneath the figure.

The shark is shown in full profile in a soft blue-gray wash, long and cylindrical, with a small rounded dorsal fin, short pectoral fin and a series of gill slits behind the eye. Above it, three studies set on the blank sheet show the structure of the animal: a pair of teeth from the upper and lower jaw, an outline of the head from below with the open mouth, and a small patch of skin showing its rough denticles. The mixture of finished figure and anatomical detail is typical of the expedition's zoological plates.

Gaimard's expedition of 1835 was originally sent to search for the lost Arctic expedition of Jean de Blosseville and brought back a wide survey of the natural history of Iceland and Greenland. The Greenland shark lives in the cold North Atlantic and Arctic waters and is among the longest-lived vertebrates known.

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