The Two-Headed Serpent and the Black Butterfly, 1749
$435 (£330, €390)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1749
- Size
- 14.6 × 9.8 in (37 × 25 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Good condition with the original hand coloring still very vivid and vibrant. The paper is chain-lined with strong plate marks and watermark. General age related toning and minor foxing. A dirt spot in the title. Left border rough.
- Period
- 18th century
- Section
- Reptiles and amphibians
- Reference
- f_38314792
The two-headed snake and the black butterfly, an original hand-colored copper engraving from Johann Michael Seligmann's natural history series, published in Nuremberg in 1749. The plate is lettered "Die Zweyköpfige Schlange." at the top with "Tab. CII." at the upper right, and below the image "Serpens dilute fuscus, Barbadensis, biceps." together with the French "Le Serpent à deux Têtes. Le Papillon Noir."
Two butterflies fill the upper part of the sheet, one seen from above and one in profile, with dark gray-black wings marked with red and blue near the body. Below them a pale brown snake lies coiled in a loop on a patch of turf, with a head at each end of its body, and two enlarged views of the paired heads stand at either side. The Latin line names the snake as a pale brown, two-headed one from Barbados.
The credit line "G. Edwards ad viv. delin." shows that the drawing is after George Edwards, with Seligmann as publisher and Sebastian Leitner the younger as engraver.
