"Tableau des Principaux Peuples de l'Amerique"

Subject: Western Hemisphere - America, Natives
Period: 1799 (dated)
Color: Hand Color
Size: 12.4 x 19.4

This superb and uncommon engraving was created by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur to illustrate the different indigenous peoples of North and South America. A series of twenty-four vignettes, identified with a numbered key below the image, depict the appearance, traditional clothes, and daily activities of various natives, including those from the United States, Louisiana, Florida, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, the Amazon, Tierra del Fuego, and other regions. The images are based on earlier prints and travel accounts of the New World. The decorative border is filled with plants and animals native to the Americas, including beavers, a squirrel, a crab, snakes, and an armadillo, among others. See also lot 613 for the matching engraving of Africa from this series.
Condition: B+
Contemporary color with light toning and soiling, two small worm holes in the bottom border, and trimmed margins with loss of publisher's imprint at bottom.