Early 19th Century 1802 Collection of Thirteen Albertus Seba Herpetology Plates

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Early 19th Century 1802 Collection of Thirteen Albertus Seba Herpetology Plates

About the Item

Collection of thirteen snake plates produced by Albertus Seba. The plates have been sympathetically framed in thin bull nose frames with a cream and blue flecked mount. These prints are likely to be from the second striking as dated 1802 31cm / 37cm. Albertus Seba was an apothecary in Amsterdam who became wealthy in the service of the Dutch East India Company. During this time, the Dutch, through the Company, commanded the most extensive network of trade and colonies in the world, and it was by exploiting this that Seba managed to build his enormous wunderkammer. He gathered a vast array of specimens from Sri Lanka, Greenland, Indonesia, and other far-flung places. Many specimens were from South America, which came via the Dutch colony of Surinam. His first collection had been sold in 1717 to Peter the Great of Russia for the princely sum of 15,000 guilders. However, his second collection soon surpassed the first in depth as well as in breadth. The present work is a catalogue of his second and greatest cabinet of natural rarities and curiosities which included mammals, birds, plants, insects, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, fish, crustaceans, shells, minerals, and fossils, as well as monsters and freaks of nature such as the seven-headed hydra (which Linnaeus denounced as a fake). Most of the text of the first two volumes was written by Seba himself. Such was the magnitude of Seba's collection that his private museum became internationally famous as a tourist attraction, visited both by passing dignitaries and naturalists. One of the latter was Maria Sybilla Merian, who made use of the cabinet in her great work on Surinamese insects. Seba's cabinet also played a significant role in Linnaeus's classification of the natural world. Seba died in 1736 with the last two volumes still awaiting publication. The collection was auctioned in 1752 to finance completion of the catalogue. Many of Seba's specimens still survive in European museums.

Creator:
Albertus Seba 1 (Illustrator)
Dimensions:
Height: 14.57 in (37 cm)Width: 12.21 in (31 cm)Depth: 0.4 in (1 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 13
Style:
George III (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Glass,Paper,Softwood,Engraved
Place of Origin:
Netherlands
Period:
Early 19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1802
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. age related wear to the paper, foxing and discoloration.
Seller Location:
Lowestoft, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4612114527462