Crocodiles with an Egyptian Pyramid, Antique Bertuch Print, Vienna, circa 1805

This antique crocodile print shows two crocodilians on the banks of a river, the first with an Egyptian pyramid rising behind it, on an original hand coloured plate from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch headed Amphibien II.

The upper crocodile, dark brown with a yellow belly and a red mouth, lies on a green bank above the water, and the pyramid in the background places it firmly on the Nile. The lower animal, paler and seen from a higher angle with its feet spread, is probably the American alligator or cayman that Bertuch contrasted with it, although the names in the text have not been confirmed for this sheet. Note that the French heading is engraved Ampibies, an original slip of the engraver.

The plate comes from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch, published in Vienna under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend. Its source is the celebrated Bilderbuch fuer Kinder, the picture book for children conceived and edited by Friedrich Justin Bertuch in Weimar, whose plates were engraved afresh by Viennese engravers for this edition. Most plates carry their subject class and number in German, Latin and French across the top, so that the work could teach languages as well as natural history. Here the heading belongs to the series of amphibians, a class in which Bertuch, following the naturalists of his day, grouped snakes, lizards, crocodiles, frogs and even seals. The small engraved mark I.B.22 places the sheet in volume 1 of the Vienna edition, one of the volumes issued in Vienna in the first years of the nineteenth century.

It is a copperplate engraving, coloured by hand with watercolour in the manner of the Weimar original. Bertuch drew his images from the best natural history books of his time, and the result is a lively, accessible record of how the natural world was understood around 1800. Single plates from the Bilderbuch are popular with collectors of antique natural history prints, and a group of related plates makes a handsome display in a study, library or hallway.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a few spots and faint show through from the reverse; the image is clean and brightly coloured.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.