Sep 17, 2009 - Sale 2186

Sale 2186 - Lot 290

Price Realized: $ 2,040
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER.) Thevet, Andre. Leaf from Les Vrais Pourtraits et vies des Hommes Illustres featuring an early engraving of Columbus. Pages 522-523. 13 x 9 inches, engraving with printed text recto and verso, marginal edge wear and staining not affecting image; inked owners' stamps on verso. [Paris, 1584]
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The second printed portrait of Columbus. Its source book is more difficult to come by than Jovius's work above. "Though not resembling in the least the Jovian type, yet it agrees fully with the descriptions we have of Columbus"--Ponce de Leon, page 67. "The engravers are anonymous . . . but were masters of their art. . . . Thevet had access to the private and extensive collections of the Queen Mother, as well as those of numerous influential friends elsewhere in France and Europe. We cannot by any means brush aside as pure fantasy, this rich store of pictorial history. In some instances, these portraits constitute valuable, even unique documentation"--Cholakian's introduction to a 1973 edition, pages x-xi.