Gestalt der Becken oder Kessel/Welche sie fur ihre Blocken und fur ihre musicalische instrument gebrauchen.

By: Theodor de Bry

Date: 1599 (circa) Amsterdam

Dimensions: 11.75 x 8 inches (30 cm x 20.3 cm)

This interesting copperplate engraving by Theodor deBry was composed by him according to stories and illustrations of European expeditions and explorations that were being made at the end of the sixteenth century.

This is print XXX in his series on the city-sultanate Bantam in Java. located across the straits from Sumatra. Here de Bry depicts musical instruments including large hanging gongs which a man is striking with a mallet and smaller metal plates attached to wooden frames. perhaps the ancestors of modern day xylophones.

Having started his professional career as an engraver. during the three years he lived in London de Bry became acquainted with the geographer Richard Hakluyt. whose stories of expeditions to exotic foreign lands engendered in de Bry a desire to make the discoveries known to a wider reading public. Most of his books were based on first-hand accounts by the explorers themselves.

Condition: This engraving is in B condition. This print is in B condition. There is toning. soiling and foxing. most of which is in border areas. Separations on the lower border have been repaired with archival material on the verso.

Inventory #19533                                                               

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