Lizards and Newts, Eight Species, Antique Bertuch Print, Vienna, circa 1805

This antique lizard print shows eight small reptiles and amphibians, lizards together with newts and salamanders, on an original hand coloured plate from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch headed Amphibien XXIII, various kinds of lizards.

At the top a bright green lizard stands on a grassy strip, followed by a spiny, gecko like lizard seen from above and two long, almost legless lizards that look more like snakes. The lower half of the plate is given to newts and salamanders, one shown from below with its orange belly, one spotted blue grey and one dark with a yellow stripe along its flank. The plate neatly shows young readers the variety hidden within a single group.

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 IX.B.17 places the sheet in volume 9 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 even toning, faint show through of text from the reverse and some wear at the right edge; the figures are clear.

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.