Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
The One-Horned Rhinoceros, Pair of Brodtmann Lithographs, circa 1825
$975 (£735, €880)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat or rolled, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- circa 1825
- Size
- 19.7 × 23.6 in (50 × 60 cm)
- Technique
- Lithograph
- Coloring
- Original hand color
- Condition
- Good. Even age toning throughout. Light foxing in the margins of both sheets. All corners complete on every sheet.
- Period
- Early 19th century
- Section
- Mammals
- Reference
- BG-14459-2
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
This is an original pair of antique hand colored lithographs from Schinz and Brodtmann's Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der Saeugethiere, Zurich, 1824 to 1829, sold together as a pair and not available singly. The first sheet shows an Indian rhinoceros in profile facing right, the heavy armored plates of the hide drawn fold by fold, the single horn low on the snout and the whole animal set on a narrow band of green ground with a clear sky behind. The second sheet shows a second study of the Indian rhinoceros, this one facing left, the animal younger and lighter in build than its companion, the neck and shoulder plates less deeply cut and the horn shorter, standing on the same narrow band of ground.
They are two original sheets sold together, and the set is never split. Both are original hand colored lithographs from Heinrich Rudolf Schinz's Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der Saeugethiere, drawn on the stone and printed by Carl Joseph Brodtmann at Zurich between 1824 and 1829, and both carry the German common name and the Latin binomial lettered in script beneath the image.
The riveted plate armor of the Indian rhinoceros was the feature every European artist from Duerer onward seized on, and Brodtmann draws it from observation rather than from the old woodcut tradition. The two sheets are numbered 53 and 54 in the work. The work gives the one-horned rhinoceros two consecutive plates, which is unusual and suggests the author wanted both a mature and a younger animal on record. A matched group hung together reads as one piece of furniture on a wall rather than as several small pictures, and because the sheets are the same size they frame identically and line up without compromise. Framed alike in plain dark moldings with equal mounts they suit a hall, a stair, a study or a dining room.
Even age toning throughout. Light foxing in the margins of both sheets. All corners complete on every sheet.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.
