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Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
Five Soles and Flatfish, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1815
€210 ($235, £180, €210)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- circa 1813-1818
- Technique
- Copper Engraving
- Colouring
- Original hand colour
- Condition
- Good. Good condition for its age. Light toning with faint show through of the verso text; a few small brown spots to the right margin and minor nicks along the right edge. Please review the images for further condition details.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Artist or book
- Bertuch
- Section
- Fish and shells
- Reference
- BG-14336-109
This hand coloured copper engraving of five flatfishes, soles and their relatives, comes from the later Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch. Their patterned upper sides are finely coloured, from a golden sole blotched in brown to an oval flatfish spotted in black on yellow within a pink and black fringe.
The heading reads Fische LVI and Poissons LVI, and the mark at lower right reads XVIII.B.12. The five numbered figures show the flat, asymmetrical bodies and continuous fin fringes of the soles, one marbled in a maze like pattern, another plain reddish brown. The species are identified here at group level only, since the text leaf is not present.
The later volumes of the Vienna edition, published in Vienna under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend, continued the reprint of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Weimar Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in volumes of fifty plates each, with German and French headings in place of the three languages of the earlier plates. The Weimar original, the great illustrated encyclopaedia for children issued by the Landes Industrie Comptoir from 1790 onwards, was followed subject for subject, and the plates were sold coloured by hand. The small mark at the foot, giving the Vienna volume and plate number, is what distinguishes these sheets from the Weimar issue. As a copper engraving coloured by hand for a teaching book, it combines scientific ambition with a direct, appealing clarity. This sheet comes from Vienna volume XVIII, which places it circa 1813 to 1818.
A plate like this suits a kitchen, a dining room, a study or a coastal house, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch fish plates, where the colour and the consistent format of the series make a lively and coherent wall.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, faint show through of the verso text and a few small spots and nicks at the right margin; the image is clean.
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.
