STEEL ENGRAVING – “JUDITH” from the sculpture by J. C Destreez, engraved by G. Stodart, published in 1886.  This engraving is in excellent condition.  The picture measures 8 1/2”x 2 1/2”, and is matted to 11” x 14” for easy framing. 

      Celebrated in Hebrew history is the story of Judith, the patriotic and daring woman who delivered her country from the Assyrians by killing their general, Holofernes.  She was a widow of a goodly countenance and very beautiful to behold, and perhaps for these reasons was invited by Holefernes into his tent.  When he was filled with wine, and lying upon his couch, “Then Judith approached and laid hold of the hairs of his head and said, Strenghten me, O Lord God of Israel, this day.  And she smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him.”  Here we see her in her sublime act of invocation, a superb figure over o intense passion, full of the consciousness of her awful but divinely inspired mission.  She is the Joan of Arc of the Jews.  She feels herself to have been born for such a high enterprise, and never for a moment does she distrust her ability to execute it.  This woman, reared among a rude people, her beauty fashioned, like that of one of Wordsworth’s heroines, from the natural surroundings of an out-door life, her soul steeped through and through with the sense of the perpetual presence of an avenging Deity, whose instrument she is, belongs to one of the finest types that history has preserved.   The French sculptor, M. Destreez, has grasped the great conception, although undue importance has been given to the jewelry wears, and to the embroidery of her gown.  A simpler treatment would have been more effective.  This work was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1874.  

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.