An art painting of a Mediterranean winter harbor scene in watercolor. Dated and signed January 1885. In good condition, but faded, stained, and a barely noticeable tear-could use some restoration.

▶️ Size:
6.5" wide x 5" tall
16.5cm wide x 10.5cm tall
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▶️ Found inside a stamp book from the same period. The stamp book is full of stamps and is available on my profile page or here:



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▶️ AI location investigation:
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AI scanned the image and reported a possible location for the image:
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"This 19th‑century watercolor depicts a Mediterranean harbor entrance, identifiable by several architectural and maritime features characteristic of the Adriatic coastal region. The composition shows a narrow peninsula projecting into calm blue water, lined with whitewashed buildings topped with red roofs—a style strongly associated with historic Venetian and Austro‑Hungarian coastal settlements along the Dalmatian coast.
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A particularly distinctive element is the presence of a tall, mast‑like wooden harbor crane with spars and rope rigging. This type of crane was widely used in Adriatic and Ionian ports during the 18th and 19th centuries and is rarely found outside the Mediterranean maritime world. Its inclusion, along with lateen‑rigged boats, provides a strong geographic anchor for the scene.
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The background features brown, rocky hills and the peninsula features cypress‑like trees, further supporting a Southern European coastal setting. These natural elements are consistent with the landscapes of Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, and the Ionian islands.
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The enhanced caption reveals the inscription “Entrance to Bitter Lake.” Although no place name matching this label appears on modern maps, the visual evidence—particularly the stylistic and architectural details—strongly suggests that the artist was depicting a Mediterranean harbor approach, most plausibly somewhere along the Adriatic coast. The reference to the Bitter Lakes of Egypt arises only because the phrase “Bitter Lake(s)” is best known from that well‑documented location on the Suez Canal; however, the Egyptian lakes bear no resemblance to the scene. The similarity in naming is therefore coincidental, and the artwork clearly reflects a Southern European rather than Egyptian setting."
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"How "bitter" functioned as a geographic descriptor:
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In maritime English of the 17th–19th centuries, the word bitter had a broader semantic range than it does today. Beyond its taste‑related meaning, it was also used in nautical terminology to describe:
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A terminal point — the furthest extremity of a rope, channel, or passage
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A constricted or difficult approach — a place where movement “comes to its bitter,” meaning its limit
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A boundary or edge — often applied metaphorically to physical locations
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This older usage survives most clearly in the nautical phrase “the bitter end,” which originally referred not to emotion but to the end of a rope secured to the bitts on a ship’s deck. By extension, bitter could be applied to harbor mouths, narrows, or terminal inlets—places where a journey or channel reached its limit.
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Because of this, 19th‑century artists, surveyors, and travelers used 'bitter' as a generic descriptive term in captions or sketches, meaning something like:
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“the entrance at the far end,”
“the difficult or narrow end of the harbor,” or
“the terminal approach.”
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This helps explain why a label such as “Entrance to Bitter Lake” could appear even when no formally named “Bitter Lake” existed on contemporary maps. The phrase may have been intended as a descriptive tag rather than a proper toponym, marking the entrance to a narrow or terminal basin within a harbor."
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Also, no shipping or delivery.
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You need to pick up the 1885 Watercolour.
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I'm available most days 2pm-9pm
by appointment only.
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Close to Dufferin/Lawrence:
Yorkdale Mall
401-Allan Rd
401-Dufferin
Lawrence W subway.
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⭐Please text me if interested.☺️
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