Antique Bird Print of the Female Red-Breasted Merganser by Sepp & Nozeman (1797)

Description: Antique print titled ‘Mergus Serrator, Foemina'. This print depicts the Red-Breasted Merganser (Dutch: Middelste Zaagbek). The red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator) is a diving duck, one of the sawbills. The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird, and serrator is a sawyer from Latin serra, "saw".

This print originates from 'Nederlandsche Vogelen; volgens hunne huisdouding, aert, en eigenschappen beschreeven", Amsterdam, 1770-1829 by C. Nozeman, M. Houttuyn and J.C. Sepp. This is the most important and first study in the Netherlands of ornithology at that time. The birds are depicted as they are in life, said to be depicted close to life sized and in their environment.

Artists and engravers: This monumental work is associated with Christiaan Andreas Sepp, Jan Christiaan Sepp, Jan Sepp, Cornelis Nozeman, Martinus Houttuyn and Coenraad Jacob Temminck.