Wardstrom Carl Bernhard Plan and Section of a Slave Ship

Sale 2034 - Lot 73

Price Realized: $ 9,200

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000

EXCEPTIONAL ENGRAVING OF A SLAVE SHIP Wardstrom, Carl Bernhard. Plan and Section of a Slave Ship. Large engraved diagram of the hold of a slave ship from An Essay on Colonization, particularly applied to the Western Coast of Africa, 203/4x263/4 inches; some professional archival repairs to the margins, several repairs at intersecting folds; matted and framed. [London, 1794]

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Additional Details

A variant of the familiar 18th-century slave ship diagram appearing in several abolitionist works, which were based on the slave-ship Brooke. The present engraving, while taken from the Brooke model, not only depicts the familiar cut-away view of the hold of the slave ship with the people literally stacked like cordwood, it also bears an extra engraving titled "Representaion of an Insurrection on board a Slave Ship." The engraving is divided vertically into two halves. On the left, the diagram of the hold and the smaller engraving; and on the right the key to the various sections of the diagram and the text explaining the manner in which the slaves were captured and transported to the coast for sale. A rare image in any variation, this one is a particularly striking version.