527

Prints: 1776 New York Fire Vue d'Optique

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Prints: 1776 New York Fire Vue d'Optique
c. 1776, Original Hand-Colored Print, "REPRESENTATION DU FEU TERRIBLE A NOUVELLE YORCK," By Francois Xavier Habermann, Augsburg, Choice Fine or better. 11.75" x 16". An excellent, brightly hand colored, copper engraving. A "vue d'optique," with the title printed in reverse in French. Legend is in German and French, explaining that the Americans lit the fire on the night of September 19, 1776, burning all of the buildings on the West Side of New York, to the right of the Stock Exchange, in Broock Street up to King's College, more than 1,600 houses, as well as the Church of St. Trinity and the School for the Poor. There is some minor, mostly hidden, scattered dampstaining on the left side and near center, but mostly it matches the smoke billowing from the buildings. The roofs of the buildings are in blue and red, as are the jackets of the American and British soldiers fighting in the streets. A gruesome picture, men being speared, people running for their lives, slaves and/or servants carrying off chests full of possessions to be saved from the flames. Matted and framed to 18" x 22." An attractive and very desirable historic print.