European Images of Safavid Persia, 1682 Dutch Etching of Royal Judgment and Courtly Authority

Persia

Posters, Broadsides, Prints, Maps, &

Vries, Simon de, Persische historie, 1682, is a Dutch engraved image of Persian royal authority, court ritual, and legal petitioning within seventeenth-century European print culture. Produced for a Dutch compendium on notable places and peoples beyond Europe, the plate belongs to the cultural sphere of early modern travel literature, where images of Asian, African, and American societies shaped European understandings of empire, sovereignty, dress, religion, and custom. Its value lies in its visual construction of Persia as a courtly and judicial civilization, with the enthroned king, petitioning subject, attendants, guards, children, and domestic animal arranged as evidence of how Dutch readers encountered Persian monarchy through illustrated books rather than direct observation. The source work is identified in library records as Simon de Vries’s Curieuse aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische verwonderens-waerdige dingen, published in Utrecht by J. Ribbius in 1682.

Persische historie. Simon de Vries. Utrecht: J. Ribbius, 1682. Etching on verge-type hand-laid watermarked paper, from Curieuse aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische verwonderens-waerdige dingen, a Dutch-language work on notable “East and West Indian” subjects, China, Africa, and other world regions. The image shows a Persian king seated in a palace interior while a man pleads before him; behind and around the ruler stand court members and spear-bearing guards, with two children in Persian dress and a dog watching from the lower corner. Numbered details in the plate correspond to an old Dutch explanatory key printed above the image: “1. King of Persia. 2. First emperial servant. 3. Jealous court members. 4. Closed room. 5. Water bottle and flute. 6. Shepherd dress. 7. Shepherd meal. 8. Kings court.” The numbered format gives the print pedagogical force, directing the viewer through rank, emotion, costume, architectural space, and courtly hierarchy rather than leaving the scene as decoration alone.

The plate dates to the late seventeenth century, when Dutch commercial and publishing networks circulated illustrated accounts of distant courts and peoples to a readership invested in global trade, comparative customs, and political spectacle. As an image of Persia produced in the Dutch Republic, it supports research into European representations of Iran, early modern visual ethnography, illustrated travel literature, and the translation of non-European sovereignty into book illustration. Uncut as published, with image measuring approximately 6 by 7.5 inches and overall sheet measuring approximately 8.25 by 6.5 inches as supplied, though those dimensions appear internally inconsistent and should be checked against the object. Light age toning and minor handling consistent with a seventeenth-century loose print; overall very good. A visually dense example of early modern Dutch engagement with Persian court culture, useful for collections focused on Middle Eastern representation, print history, and European constructions of global monarchy.

Item #14402

Price: $450.00