Artist: Anonymous
Condition: A- *
Dimensions: 20.9 x 35.2 in. / 53 x 89.3 cm.
Circa: 1890
Linen Backed
* See Condition Grading section for further details
There is darkening near the edges due to mat burn from being framed and the poster has faded slightly over time; some soft creasing; some surface scuffs/abrasions; some paper toning/yellowing; 1" unobtrusive vertical tear top edge; overall the poster looks very nice and will display beautifully once framed.
A rare and evocative piece of late Victorian shipping ephemera. The German Hamburg steamship company's monthly postal service to the Dutch East Indies, via Amsterdam, Southampton, and Genoa, is promoted here with all the chromolithographic richness of the era: a stately steam-and-sail vessel in tropical waters, palm fronds framing the scene, a parrot, and a portrait of a local woman in traditional dress. The destinations, Batavia (now Jakarta), Samarang, Soerabaya, are colonial-era names that locate this firmly in a specific and long-vanished world.