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Antique Monkeys & South American Anteaters Engraving, Bertuch, c.1800
£180 ($235, €210)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1800
- Size
- 11.8 × 9.4 in (30 × 24 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Good antique condition with overall age-related toning, scattered foxing and spotting and several small brown marks and stains, particularly in the lower half of the sheet. Some light handling and age-related imperfections are visible.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Artist or book
- Bertuch
- Section
- Mammals
- Reference
- f_51466402
Monkeys and anteaters of tropical America, an original hand-colored copper engraving from Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch für Kinder, published in Weimar around 1800. The plate is headed "Vierfüßige Thiere XVI", "Anim. quadrup. XVI" and "Quadrupèdes XVI", and six numbered animals are arranged in three bands.
At the top are three New World monkeys: Fig. 1, a brown monkey seated on a rock with one arm raised to a branch; Fig. 2, a dark monkey with a pale face resting on a boulder; and Fig. 3, a small monkey clinging to a tree trunk at the left. In the middle band, Fig. 4 is the giant anteater, shown in profile on a low wooden block with its long snout, pale-striped shoulders and great bushy tail. Below it, Fig. 5 is a smaller gray anteater with a long pink snout and curling tail, identified in the old text as a tamandua, and Fig. 6 is a small animal climbing a log at the lower right, identified as the silky anteater.
The coloring is in browns, grays and soft greens. The plate was one of hundreds issued for young readers in Bertuch's illustrated encyclopedia.
