Nerves of the Whole Back, Hirschfeld Double Folding Plate, 1866
€ 440
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1866
Mapmaker / artist
Ludovic Hirschfeld and J. B. Leveille
Publisher
G. Masson, Paris
Technique
Lithograph
Coloring
Original hand color
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14363-59
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.
Condition
Good condition with light age toning and scattered minor marks. A horizontal fold line crosses the sheet, with slight creasing and a short tear at the right edge. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
This antique Hirschfeld anatomy print of the nerves of the whole back is Double Plate 66 and 67 from Hirschfeld and Leveille's Nevrologie atlas, an original hand-colored lithograph published in Paris by G. Masson in 1866. This folding sheet shows the whole back of a man from the crown of the head to the buttocks. One half keeps the broad superficial back muscles, with the cutaneous nerves emerging in series. The other half is carried deeper to the vertebral column, the ribs and the deep spinal muscles, showing the posterior spinal nerve branches at every level.
The plate comes from the atlas to Ludovic Hirschfeld's Nevrologie et Esthesiologie, the second edition of his treatise and iconography of the human nervous system and the organs of sense, published in Paris by G. Masson in 1866. Every figure was drawn from life by J. B. Leveille directly from Hirschfeld's own dissections, and the sheet was printed by Lemercier of the rue de Seine. The technique is lithography, and the coloring is original hand color.
Leveille's plates are among the most admired anatomical illustrations of the nineteenth century. They are exact enough to teach from, yet drawn with a restraint that keeps them beautiful rather than merely clinical, and a Hirschfeld anatomy print of this kind will interest collectors of scientific illustration and the history of medicine. This double plate is a strong choice as a single statement piece for a medical practice, a study or a library, and it also anchors a wider collection of plates from the same atlas.
Condition is good. The sheet shows light age toning and scattered minor marks. A horizontal fold line crosses the sheet, with slight creasing and a short tear at the right edge. The toning is ordinary for paper of this age. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original antique plate, 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.
