Merian, Butterflies, Moths, Folio, Hand Coloured Engraving

37.5 x 22.5 cm SUPERB ORIGINAL COPPER ENGRAVING!! Matthäus Merian der Ältere (or "Matthew", "the Elder", or "Sr."; 22 September 1593 - 19 June 1650) was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house. Born in Basel, Merian learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zürich. He next worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, and Paris, before returning to Basel in 1615. The following year he moved to Frankfurt, Germany where he worked for the publisher Johann Theodor de Bry, who was the son of renowned engraver and traveler Theodor de Bry. Early in his life, he had created detailed town plans...

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733); engraved by P.A. Kilian. Bible engraving, Noah’s Ark Folio. Dimensions: 38 x 24 cm. Hand coloured This fascinating folio engraving is from Johann Jakob Scheuchzer’s Physica Sacra. The work was published in Augsburg und Ulm between 1731 and 1735. Each engraving features highly decorative borders which feature biblical and scientific depictions. Physica Sacra combined theological and scientific practices in an attempt to reconcile biblical passages with the new sciences of the time. The work is an extraordinary illustrated natural history work, and a great example of the decorative nature of the 18th century copper engraving. Scheuchzer was a founder of paleobotany and European paleontology, as well as a professor of mathematics and physics. He believed the Old Testament was a factual account of the history of the world...

Fine folio engraving in hand color. This rare antique engraving was published in the series: 'Historiae Naturalis' by John Johnston, published and engraved by Matthias Merian in 1657. Matthaus Merian...

Fine folio engraving in hand color. This rare antique engraving was published in the series: 'Historiae Naturalis De Avibus Libri VI' by John Johnston, published and engraved by Matthias Merian in 1657. Matthaus Merian...

Lysimachia nemorum, the yellow pimpernel, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Primulaceae. Large folio: 42.7 x 27.5 cm Copper engraving, hand ...

Karl Bodmer “Indian - Makuie-Poka Sohn des Wolfen” Bodmer’s portrait of a Majuro-Poku Blackfoot Piegen. From H.R. Schinz’s Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen des Menschen. Zurich: Hon...

Antique Bird Prints Natural History Studies of Parrots and Tropical Birds Hand-colored engravings 23.5 x 30.5 inches each including frame Imagine all 18 on one wall in your study.

From Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, first published 1705 Engravings by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter (Sluiter) and D. Stoopendaal after Maria Sybilla Merian. This plate is part of a comprehensive collection comprising 17 plates. Check out other listings to view the entire series. 1964 Hoffman and Campe Verlag, Hamburg Complete production Mladinska Knjiga, Ljubljana/Yugoslavia. This 1964 official reproduction table come from the editions: Dissertation sur la génération et les transformations des insectes de Surinam, The Hague, Pierre Gosse, 1726, and Over de Voortteeling en Wonderbaerlyke Veranderingen der Surinaamsche insects, Amsterdam, Jean Frederic Bernard, 1730. CORAL TREE AND SILK MOTH The plant is Erythrina glanca, the blue-green coral tree, easily recognized as a legume by its fruits, called Koffiemama by the Surinamese Dutch because it is used as a shade tree in coffee and cocoa plantations. Both crops do not tolerate the direct rays of the tropical sun well. Erythrina is also called pallisade booms because the Indians split the logs and build huts and walls from the boards. The inflorescences are so heavy that the branches are pulled against the ground and only stand up again when the petals fall off. The ripe fruit cluster has pods like a broom and also serves this purpose among the natives. If the sheet with the pomegranate (original plate no. 9) lived in the tension of red and blue, one can speak less of tension here, one must speak of a moving fullness of life, which is expressed in green, yellow and brown along the two diagonals is formed by the branch, the other by the opposition of the two butterflies, the upper female and the lower male. The butterfly is Arsenura cassandra from the family Syssphingidae, from the family group of silk moths. This species creates interest through the molting of the caterpillars. Those that have just hatched from the egg are striped black and yellow and have thorns on the front and back. Over the course of five molts, the animals turn orange with a black spot on each limb, the thorns wither and finally disappear completely before pupation. Here, too, the author of the composition has made a sacrifice of accuracy: the caterpillar pupates in the ground or on the surface in leaves and mulch, but not at the top of the tree. (Original plate no. 11) ____________________________________ Maria Sibylla...

From Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, first published 1705 Engravings by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter (Sluiter) and D. Stoopendaal after Maria Sybilla Merian. This plate is part of ...

Antique print, titled: 'De Spinneweb Tarantula.' - This original antique print shows spiders of Crete. Dutch text on verso. Source unknown, to be determined. Artists and Engravers...

Given the historical significance and the artistic presentation of these illustrations, an alternative fitting title for the combined image could be "Vintage Lepidoptera Elegance: Ha...

19th Century pair of original hand coloured engravings of Egypt in gilt wood frames. After Cecile by Lienard & Reville. Titled “Thebes: Karnak. Vue de la Porte et des Temples du Sud”...