Warrior of Timor, Amfoang, Antique Wahlen Costume Print, 1843-1844

A warrior of Timor from Amfoang, an original antique wood engraving from Auguste Wahlen's Moeurs, usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde, published in Brussels between 1843 and 1844. The plate is lettered "Guerrier de Timor (Amfoang) (Océanie)", a warrior of Timor from Amfoang, placed by the publisher in his Oceania section. Amfoang is a district at the north western end of Timor, near Kupang, and in the nineteenth century it was one of the small princedoms of the Dutch sphere on an island the Netherlands and Portugal divided between them. Named local polities of this kind appear rarely in general costume books, which makes this an unusually specific sheet within the series. The sheet is a wood engraving on paper and is uncoloured, as issued in this part of the series, and the crispness of the block work is what carries the image.

Moeurs, usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde was published in Brussels by Auguste Wahlen at the Librairie Historique-Artistique between 1843 and 1844. The four volumes set out to describe the dress, customs, occupations and social divisions of the peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania, drawing on travel narratives, earlier costume books and other sources then treated as authoritative, and they carried approximately one hundred and ninety to two hundred plates, the count varying between copies and editions.

Wahlen was the publisher and compiler rather than the artist, and where a name such as Duverger, Pannemaker, Mercier, Lisbet, Markaert or Vermorcken appears on a sheet it belongs to the illustrator or the engraver, and no artist is attributed here without one.

The plates are wood engravings on paper. The images should be read as a nineteenth century European interpretation of the cultures they show rather than as a documentary record, which is a large part of what makes the series interesting to historians of the period. Timor subjects are among the more sought after in the work, and this plate groups well with the Amfoang, Solor, Sawoe and Rotti sheets when hung as a set of four or six.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, chips along the right edge and a small brown spot in the margin; the image itself is clean and strong.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.