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Original Antique Print of American Crocodile and Gharial by Bertuch, 1802
$300 (£230, €269)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1802
- Size
- 9.6 × 7.7 in (24.4 × 19.5 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Light age-related toning and occasional minor spotting. Original hand coloring remains attractive. Please refer to the photographs for further details of condition.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Artist or book
- Bertuch
- Section
- Reptiles and amphibians
- Reference
- f_51362832
An American crocodile and a gharial on one plate, an original hand-colored copper engraving titled "Amphibien XIV / Amphibies XIV", from Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch für Kinder, published in Weimar in 1802. The engraver, named as Jacob Hauer in the old text, has signed the plate at the lower right.
Figure 1, the "Americanische Crocodil", which Bertuch labeled with the then-current scientific name Lacerta Alligator, lies along a grassy rock with a brown back and a long toothed snout, and waves wash around the base of the rock. Figure 2, the long-snouted gharial or Ganges crocodile, called Lacerta Gangetica in the text, rests in profile on a flat stone patched with moss, with a green back, pink flanks and a very slender snout. The hand coloring is in browns, greens and yellow.
Bertuch (1747 to 1822), a German publisher in Weimar, issued the Bilderbuch für Kinder from 1790, an illustrated encyclopedia for young readers that eventually filled many volumes of finely engraved and hand-colored plates on natural history, geography, costume and technology.
