Tinted Lithograph of Ravines in the Bed of the Ancient Lake in the USA, 1856

Name: Tinted Lithograph of Ravines in the Bed of the Ancient Lake in the USA, 1856
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-14038-5
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: 1856
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 20.7 × 28.3 cm (8.1 × 11.1 in)
Condition: Excellent. With minimal age-related toning and no significant marks or blemishes. Edges are crisp, and the image remains vibrant.
Period: Westward Expansion & Civil War
Places: California
Reference: BG-14038-5

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

Ravines cut into the floor of a dried lake bed, an original tinted lithograph from the Pacific Railroad Surveys, issued in 1856. The caption reads "Ravines in the Bed of the Ancient Lake", with "From a sketch by Chr. Koppel" at lower left and the Hoen & Co. Baltimore lithographer's credit at lower right. The header reads "U.S.P.R.R. Exp. & Surveys, Cal." and the sheet is numbered Geology Plate IX.

Pale, eroded bluffs fill the middle of the image, scored by deep, steep-sided gullies that run down to a flat basin floor. In the foreground two men stand at the edge of the rocks, one holding a horse, looking out over the formation, while the distant mesas and a few thin clouds fill the background. Soft tints of buff, gray and brown give the weathered rock its texture.

The plate was drawn for the geological part of the California survey reports, where views of this kind illustrated the ancient lake basin of the Colorado Desert region. The reports were published as Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

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