Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
Japanese Sea Bass, Antique Perry Expedition Fish Lithograph, 1856
£200 ($265, €240)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat or rolled, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1856
- Size
- 8.7 × 11.6 in (22 × 29.5 cm)
- Technique
- Lithograph
- Coloring
- Printed color
- Condition
- Good. Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right edge. All four corners complete.
- Period
- Late 19th century
- Section
- Fish and shells
- Reference
- BG-14475-2-1
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
This is an original antique lithographed plate of Japanese fishes from the official report of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, the third plate of its natural history series. Two sea basses lie across the sheet in color, numbered one and two and named in Latin along the foot, with the heading United States Japan Expedition at the upper left and Natural History Plate the third at the upper right. The drawing is credited on the plate to Bayard Taylor.
It belongs to the natural history plates of the official Perry expedition report, the Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, published at Washington in 1856 by order of Congress. The figures were taken from recent specimens by the artists attached to the squadron, and James Carson Brevoort supplied the scientific notes. The drawing on this plate is credited to Bayard Taylor.
Bayard Taylor was the travel writer who sailed with Perry and whose books made the expedition famous at home, so a fish drawn by his hand is an unusual thing to own. The plates were made from fresh specimens in Japanese harbors in 1854, at the moment the country was being opened to foreign trade after two centuries of seclusion. The plates frame well in a simple pale frame and look well in a run of two or three along a hallway, a kitchen or a bathroom wall.
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right edge. All four corners complete.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.
