CEDARS OF GOD MOUNT LEBANON TREE FOREST ~ Old 1836 Landscape Art Print Engraving

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CEDARS OF GOD MOUNT LEBANON TREE FOREST ~ Old 1836 Landscape Art Print Engraving:
$24.99

LEBANON

Artist: William Henry Bartlett ____________ Engraver: J. Redaway

Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving

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AN ANTIQUE STEEL ENGRAVING MADE IN THE LATE 1830s!

VERY OLD WORLD! INCREDIBLE DETAIL!

FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: It is a striking instance of the power and influence of the Sacred Writings, that a few scattered notices of \" the cedars of Lebanon,\" supply the motive to numerous travellers, of all nations and tongues, for a difficult mountain-journey, out of the common track of travel, in order to look upon a clump of trees-not very remarkable to those accustomed to the forest or woodland scenery of Europe and America. Trees were never very abundant or of considerable size in the south-western parts of Asia, and Egypt was almost destitute of them. Having therefore a standard of comparison very different from that which travellers from the west possess, the lofty terms in which the sacred writers speak of the Lebanon cedars, have sometimes occasioned disappointment to persons whose minds were filled with the ideas which this language conveyed, but who measured the reality by a standard very different from that which existed in the minds of the prophets. Hence the disappointment which some have frankly confessed, and which others have felt without confessing. Probably even the sacred writers judged of these trees from what they heard from others, and we have no reason to suppose, that the Hebrews were very familiar with those that grew in the upper Lebanon, except in the time of Solomon, when many of his subjects wrought with those of king Hiram in the mountains. The trees did not lie upon any route which their occasions led them to take; and we never yet knew or heard of any Oriental who would have gone a mile out of his way-much less undertake a journey-for the purpose of viewing the finest natural objects in the world. It must be allowed, however, that the cedar forest was probably of considerably larger extent and magnificence, and exhibited a greater number of large specimens, than at present, when the great old trees are so few in number, that, as the prophet foretold, \"a child may count them,\" \"and still the cedars are, in truth, \"the glory of Lebanon,\" as they greatly exceed in size and magnificence any other trees to be found throughout the mountains.

The village of Eden has been noticed in this work, (vol. i. p. 119,) and it was stated that travellers usually proceed thither, and, remaining there over-night, go on the next morning to the place of the cedars. The distance is an ascending road of about five miles, which it seldom takes less than three hours to traverse. The trees are then found, not, as some have erroneously conceived, upon any of the summits of Lebanon, but at the foot of a lofty mountain, in what may be regarded as the arena of a vast amphitheatre, open to the west, but shut in on all other sides by high mountains which form part of the upper ridges of Lebanon. Here the cedars stand upon five or six gentle elevations, occupying a spot of ground about three-fourths of a mile in circumference. As our cut is a general one, we will here confine ourselves to general description, reserving for another occasion an account of the large old trees. \"So insulated is the situation,\'J says a recent traveller, \"that, but for my guide, I should have passed by them unnoticed, my anxious eye being directed to the summit of the \"snow-crowned Lebanon, whereas, they stand in a hollow, as if \"ashamed,\" at the foot of the higher division of the mountain. Viewed from .the road, the cedars look like a clump of widespreading oaks, the remnant of a forest, that had escaped the axe; but a nearer approach made me better acquainted with their individual merits. They appear to be of several generations. Of the oldest there are few, perhaps not more than seven or eight. Besides these there are about forty or fifty good-sized, well-looking trees, and a great number of smaller ones, \"with some small pines among them. The branches and foliage of the larger cedars commence near the ground, and have a greater quantity of fruit: than the former.\" After noticing the larger trees, the traveller adds - \"Upon the whole, I expected to have seen finer specimens of this majestic tree than what presented themselves to my deep-wrought fancy. This disappointment, coupled with that with respect to the position they occupy, proved to me the advantage of seeing things and places with one\'s own eyes; for if sometimes the reality falls far short of the standard erected by an enthusiastic mind, frequently the traveller is amply repaid for the trouble he has taken.\"

Most travellers express themselves in the same manner, but with varying conclusions: a few indulge in a sneer at the highly-wrought descriptions of the sacred writers; some justly urge the difference in the standards of comparison; and others find, in the disappointment of their expectations, the confirmation of their faith in the prophecies which told that the glory of Lebanon should be brought low. It is sometimes very erroneously stated, that this species of cedar is peculiar to the locality, and that no specimens are to be found in any other part of Lebanon. Many other specimens and groups have been of late years found, but nowhere else have so many together, or such large and venerable specimens, been discovered. The tree is not even peculiar to Lebanon. It is found growing wild in the mountains of Amanus and Taurus; and a great number of specimens- more, probably, than all that grow in Lebanon-grow well in our own country, originally propagated from seeds brought from the clump represented in the engraving. Some of these, although they must have been planted less than two centuries ago, are now of magnificent dimensions. It appears from what Evelyn says, in his Silva, that it was not grown here in 1664; and it is probable that attention was drawn to it by the warm manner in which it was mentioned by him. He says, that he possessed seeds and cones from the few trees remaining in Lebanon; and adds, \"Why they should not thrive in Old England I know not, save for want of industry and trial.\" We think we can collect from the notices of Rauwolff, and other travellers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that the site of the cedars exhibited a different and more venerable appearance than at present-there being fewer, if any, recent trees, and a much greater number of large old cedars, standing in comparatively isolated grandeur, and making an impression upon the mind more in unison with the scriptural intimations than any which can at present be realized.

PRINT DATE: This lithograph was printed in the late 1830s; it is not a modern reproduction in any way.

PRINT SIZE: 7 inches by 10 inches including white border of approximately one inch on each side (not shown in scan).

PRINT CONDITION: Condition is fine. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse.

BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST: William Henry Bartlett, (b London, 26 March 1809; died at sea off Malta, 13 Sept 1854) was an English draughtsman, active also in the Near East, Continental Europe and North America. He was a prolific artist and an intrepid traveller. His work became widely known through numerous engravings after his drawings published in his own and other writers\' topographical books. His primary concern was to extract the picturesque aspects of a place and by means of established pictorial conventions to render \'lively impressions of actual sights\', as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). The background for his work on the Middle East and the Holy Land, of which the picture represented is one of his several hundred illustrations on the subject, is as follows:

In the early 1800s, the middle east was a very popular subject. Between 1790, when James Bruce\'s \"Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile\" appeared, and 1818, when Edward Daniel Clarke\'s eight volumes on \"Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa were published, more than twenty noteworthy travel books about the Near and Middle East were placed before the public. Napoleon\'s conquest of Egypt and his disastrous campaign in Syria had attracted considerable attention to the East even as Byron\'s travels and poetry, a decade later, stirred romantic imaginings about Turkey, Greece, and the Levant. The inter-relationships of Muhammed Ali, Sultan Mahmud, and Tsar Nicholas also guaranteed that, politically, western Europe had to remain alert to happenings at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean. And, of course, the building of railways in France and the introduction of the steamship greatly facilitated travel to the Middle East.

Though these were strong influences on western travellers, it is questionable, in Bartlett\'s case, if any affected him more than the religious one. His detailed knowledge of the scriptures and of biblical history is apparent throughout his writings. He wanted to see the lands of the Old and New Testament as much for his own sake as he did for the sketches he was commissioned to take from the London, England publishing firm of H. Fisher and Son. So Bartlett set out for the middle east on January second, 1834, accompanied by his wife. Mr. Bartlett proceeded directly to Paris; thence by the nearest route to Naples where the couple spent some time on those pleasant shores. From there, Mr Bartlett took leave of his wife, who returned reluctantly to England by herself, while he engaged passage to Malta, and from there to Alexandria and finally to Beirut Lebanon. From here he began his many excursions into the inland of Syria and neighboring areas. On leaving Beirut, Mr. Bartlett followed the sea shore to Tripoli, and then ascended the steeps of Lebanon and visited Baalbec. His intended visit to Jerusalem, the chief object of his journey, was defeated by the open war, in which the Holy City had been taken by Egyptian forces loyal to Mohammed Ali and his son Ibrahim Pasha, who wrested control of Palestine from the Ottomans for a 10-year period beginning in 1831. From Balbec, he therefore proceeded to Antioch and to Tarsus, along which part of this journey he was taken by a serious fever. Having completed his tour in syria, and taken sketches of all the biblical and classical scenes in his route, Bartlett returned to London in January, 1835, a full year after his departure. He had performed his engagements greatly to the satisfaction of his publisher, and immediately began to prepare sketches for the engravers.

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Please note: the terms used in our sales for engraving, heliogravure, lithograph, print, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, NOT blocks of steel or wood. \"ENGRAVINGS\", the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or \"engravings\" were inserted into the book with a tissue guard frontis, usually on much thicker quality rag stock paper, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone prints. So this sale is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper.

EXTREMELY RARE IN THIS EXCELLENT CONDITION!