English Engraving

Terraced palace squats at the water's edge while small boats drift past, unimpressed.

This engraving is from England, United Kingdom, and dates to the mid 19th century. It is ink on paper. Thomas Allom, an architect and founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects, illustrated books on China in the 1840s without ever making the trip there himself. Fine steel line pictures a riverside building with domed pavilions, stepped walls and clustered trees, backed by a wooded hill. Two small boats cross the dark water in the foreground. A centered title and small credits sit below the plate mark. It is 9.75 inches wide and 6.3 high.

Everything is reflected twice, which seems to be the idea.