Date of Printing: 1780 • Medium: Copperplate Engraving (black and white) • Subject Category: Religious • Signed: Unsigned • Period Created: Enlightenment (1700 - 1799) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: 18 x 27.7 • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 23 x 35.5 • 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: "Various Ceremonies & Customs in the East Indies, when a Woman has obtained leave to Bury herself Alive with her Deceased 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.