(Much better in person, both bolder and more precise feeling and one can just feel the age of the paper even through the glass...)
Pretty special I think, a loose drawing from the partial 1783 notebook of an Alexander, last name unknown, listed separately (which includes what seems to be of a bit of astronomy, a bit of geometry, a bit of history and what not.) I don't believe I've ever seen such a matter of fact sort of map of the Garden of Eden before, which is very much why I love it, with East noted at top and the garden itself encircled by the rivers Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. And then, at the very center, surrounded by neat grids of other trees, is the source of water and two larger trees, standing side by side, one I presume meant to represent the "tree of life" and the other the tree of "knowing good and bad." I really love this treatment, here just large trees and no figures to be seen, with focus instead, quite sensibly it seems to me, on water as the font of life. One for the naturalists, and the cartographers!
Drawing, ink on laid: 6 1/4" x 8". Under glass it in a nice antique black stained frame I had on hand waiting for the right thing, which I think suits it nicely. Framed : 12 3/8" x 10 3/8. All in very good condition.
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