Catalog Archive
Auction 180, Lot 306

"Tombeaux des Rois de la Virginie",

Subject: Virginia, Natives

Period: 1721 (dated)

Publication: Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses de Tous les Peuples du Monde...

Color: Hand Color

Size:
8.3 x 12.2 inches
21.1 x 31 cm
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This is Bernard Picart's version of the iconic ossuary engraving from Theodore de Bry's Grands Voyages, Part I. It depicts the rituals surrounding the burial of the "werowans or chieff lordes" of the Virginia natives. Nine corpses are lined up on a platform while below a priest stokes a fire. The engraving appeared in Picart's Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses de Tous les Peuples du Monde..., a ten-volume work seeking to record the various religious beliefs and practices of the world's peoples.

References:

Condition: A

A nice impression with minor spots and soiling confined to the blank margins.

Estimate: $140 - $170

Sold for: $70

Closed on 11/18/2020

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