Date of Printing: 1780 • Medium: Copperplate Engraving (black and white) • Subject Category: Religious • Signed: Unsigned • Period Created: Enlightenment (1700 - 1799) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: 27.7 x 18 • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 35.5 x 23 • Style: FOLIO Original Vintage • Print on Verso: Blank on verso • Condition: Good, with slight toning at edges • Edition Type: 1st Edition - Limited • Paper Type: Laid Paper • Framed: Print only
A bizarre depiction of the Sati or suttee practice, an obsolete Hindu funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband's pyre or commits suicide in another fashion shortly after her husband's death. Text at bottom reads: "An Indian Woman burning herself on the Death of her Husband."
This copperplate engraving is from "A NEW UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS RITES, CEREMONIES, AND CUSTOMS OF THE WHOLE WORLD: OR A COMPLETE AND IMPARTIAL VIEW OF ALL THE RELIGIONS," By William Hurd, D.D. Embellished with a set of numerous folio copper-plates, and published by William Alexander Hogg [1780], London. Artist unknown.
Condition is GOOD, with slight fraying at edges and toning on sides. Slight foxing, minor spotting.