Lot 231
H. Neun (Hrsg.), Album de Carácas y Venezuela. Primer tomo. Año 1877-1878. Caracas (1878).
Estimate
€ 4.000
Starting Price
€ 2.600
Lot:
231
Category:
Geography and work of views
Neun, H(enrique): Album de Carácas y Venezuela. Primer tomo. Año 1877-1878. Caracas: Litografia de ‘La Sociedad' (1878). 24 x 34 cm. With a lithographed title page and 34 (of 40) lithographed plates. Half-leather with gilt back label.
(Slight rubbing and minor scuffing. The plates have minor foxing; the title page and the following four plates have slight finger marks on the white margins, with minor rubbing in places. Missing the frontispiece portrait and five further plates.)
One of the rarest illustrated works of 19th-century Venezuela. The German-born lithographer Henrique Neun (1827–1893), who had been working in Caracas since the 1840s and is regarded as one of the pioneers of Venezuelan colour lithography, produced one of the highlights of his publishing career with this album. The plates are based on drawings by Ramón Bolet and depict, in an exceptionally decorative style, views of Caracas as well as other cities and landscapes in Venezuela, including Valencia, La Guaira, Puerto Cabello and Maracaibo. Numerous buildings and cityscapes that have since disappeared or been radically altered are preserved here in unique contemporary depictions.
The album was produced during the brief interruption of Antonio Guzmán Blanco’s first presidency (1877–1879). His ambitious modernisation programme was deliberately modelled on Haussmann’s urban redevelopment of Paris and gave Caracas a new, prestigious appearance. The plates document new public buildings such as the Capitol, theatres and churches, and in doing so deliberately convey the image of a modern, orderly and almost idealised Venezuela; this was likely intended both as a visual record and as political propaganda for Guzmán Blanco’s reform policies. Many of the monuments and cityscapes depicted have now disappeared and are known only through these plates; the album is therefore one of the great rarities of South American pictorial works. - The plates lack the inscription ‘Edificado bajo la Administration del General Antonio Guzmán Blanco’ found in other copies. Some plates, in contrast to comparable copies, bear different captions, such as ‘Universidad central’ instead of ‘Plaza Guzmán Blanco en Caracas’. The plates are set within orange frames rather than gold borders.
(Slight rubbing and minor scuffing. The plates have minor foxing; the title page and the following four plates have slight finger marks on the white margins, with minor rubbing in places. Missing the frontispiece portrait and five further plates.)
One of the rarest illustrated works of 19th-century Venezuela. The German-born lithographer Henrique Neun (1827–1893), who had been working in Caracas since the 1840s and is regarded as one of the pioneers of Venezuelan colour lithography, produced one of the highlights of his publishing career with this album. The plates are based on drawings by Ramón Bolet and depict, in an exceptionally decorative style, views of Caracas as well as other cities and landscapes in Venezuela, including Valencia, La Guaira, Puerto Cabello and Maracaibo. Numerous buildings and cityscapes that have since disappeared or been radically altered are preserved here in unique contemporary depictions.
The album was produced during the brief interruption of Antonio Guzmán Blanco’s first presidency (1877–1879). His ambitious modernisation programme was deliberately modelled on Haussmann’s urban redevelopment of Paris and gave Caracas a new, prestigious appearance. The plates document new public buildings such as the Capitol, theatres and churches, and in doing so deliberately convey the image of a modern, orderly and almost idealised Venezuela; this was likely intended both as a visual record and as political propaganda for Guzmán Blanco’s reform policies. Many of the monuments and cityscapes depicted have now disappeared and are known only through these plates; the album is therefore one of the great rarities of South American pictorial works. - The plates lack the inscription ‘Edificado bajo la Administration del General Antonio Guzmán Blanco’ found in other copies. Some plates, in contrast to comparable copies, bear different captions, such as ‘Universidad central’ instead of ‘Plaza Guzmán Blanco en Caracas’. The plates are set within orange frames rather than gold borders.