Prints & Drawings

Rare and dramatic image of the Holy Shroud of Turin with explanatory text.

Fine and vivid print depicting the Holy Shroud or Shroud of Turin, the image is composed of several woodcuts in black ink, with the image of the Shroud in red ink; this is apparently the only known copy, state unknown. The image conveys a sentiment of veneration towards the relic, which is accompanied by an oration, and small portraits of the Savoy family to whom it belonged.

English large 18th century engraving showing of the "Hamburg Temple Model"

Striking example of English 18th century print making, this is John Evan's edition of Gerhard Schott's remarkable three-dimensional model of Solomon's Temple, which has come to be known as the Hamburg Temple Model.

Art and Evidence: Unique 18th-Century Watercolors of the Deepest Amazon by the Boundary Commissioner in charge of the Spanish Survey party: Drama and Adversity in the Luso-Hispanic Borderlands of Colonial South America

A collection of five stunning and previously unknown watercolors illustrating dramatic scenes from the joint Spanish-Portuguese boundary commission sent to demarcate the frontiers of the Amazon following the 1777 Treaty of San Ildefonso between Portugal and Spain.

Fascinating German woodcut with explanatory text from the 15th century

Laid paper, without or with indistinct watermark, a good impression of this extremely rare woodcut, printing strongly and clearly, with contemporary hand-colouring in green, ochre, brown and red, with the prayer in German ‘O Säliger und hoher lerer Jheronyme’ in letterpress below, with margins on all sides. Lightly wormed, lower right corner torn and repaired with loss of some words in the last two lines, browned, lightly soiled, evidence of glue on verso.

An artist’s intervention - Six exceptionally colored engravings by Stradanus

Six rare and exceptionally colored engravings, contemporaneously hand-coloured with lavish use of gold, perhaps for the Medici circle, where Stradanus was the court artist.

Remarkable depiction of the Spanish Armed Forces under Charles III

A unique and attractive watercolor broadside depiction of the military and maritime armed forces of Spain in full pomp and splendor, representing the sweeping changes introduced under the wise leadership of Charles III of Spain, a reforming ruler, produce of the Spanish Enlightenment, and partially due to the defeat in Havana in 1762.

Striking English engraving of the 17th century warship the “Sovereign of the Seas”, the largest English print of the first half of the century

Huge and truly magnificent English engraving of the first half of the 17th century, “by far the largest English engraving to survive from the first half of the century (five other impressions are known)” (British Museum comment of the curator).

Extensive Group of Drawings of Pre-Columbian Mexican Imagery
Created by a British Collector, Lecturer, Museologist, 1830s-1840s
A Friend of George Catlin

A remarkable collection of ca. 1830-40’s pen and ink drawings, most with vibrant hand coloring, depicting the art and imagery of Pre-Columbian Mexico, created and assembled by Capt. William Henry Shippard, an interesting but little-researched figure active in early 19th century British collecting circles. At the time when Shippard amassed the present group of Mesoamerican visual material, he was focused on an intriguing museum project: the Museum of Mankind in London. While Shippard's plans for a museum came to nought, he remained an avid collector of Pre-Columbian Mexican visual material throughout the 1840s and occasionally lectured on the subject in London using items from his collection as visual aids.

Exceptional set of English watercolors representing the ´Nine Rocks´

A fabulous series of 18th century English watercolours illustrating the Neunfelsenbuch, or ´Nine Rocks´, by the German 14th century mystic, this set represents a very rare show of English 18th century art. They are a highly decorative set of images representing the stages of progress towards religious perfection.

To the memory of a formerly enslaved woman, freed by her mistress

A tablet of marble engraved with five lines within a double-rule border, commemorating the dedication of a funerary urn to Quirina Felicula, who had been born a slave and was freed by her mistress. The plaque reads, in full: "Quiriniae [mulieris] l[ibertae] / Feliclae / ollam dat / C[aius] Valerius / Pylodamus", that is to say: "Gaius Valerius Pylodamus (= Philodamus?) dedicated this burial urn for the freedwoman Quirinia Felicla (= Felicula)".

Goltzius' wonderful Passion of Christ, the complete suite

Goltzius' wonderful and visually striking complete suite of engravings representing the Passion of Christ, inspired and etched in the manner of Lucas van Leyden.

“Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship”, this issue added with the ‘Representation of an Insurrection on board A Slave Ship’

One of the most powerful broadsides in Anglo-American history, exceedingly influential, exploiting both text and image to demonstrate the barbarity of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.