Antique Print of the Black Tunnelweb Spider and Spitting Spider

€ 280

Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)

Sheet size: 23.4 × 15.3 cm (9.2 × 6.0 in)
Condition: Good
Reference: BG-13214-88

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

General age-related toning. Minor wear and soiling. With original protective sheet attached. Blank verso. Please review the images for further condition details.

About this sheet

Two spiders on one hand-colored engraving from the Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle, edited by Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny and published in 1861. The plate is headed "Dict. Univ. d'Hist. Nat." and "Arachnides", marked Pl. 1.

The lettering reads "1. Migale de Quoy (Mygale quoyi, Walck.)" and "2. Scytode thoracique (Scytodes thoracica, Latr.)", and the plate notes that the figure 2 is shown in natural size. The large Mygale occupies the lower part of the sheet: a heavy-bodied red-brown spider with a pale rounded abdomen and a dark blue cluster of eyes, with an outline drawing of its mouthparts above. The upper spider is the slender, long-legged Scytodes, banded in orange and pale yellow, with outline drawings of its jaws, its eye group and a much smaller version at natural size.

D'Orbigny was a French botanist and geologist who identified many of the flowering plant species returned to France from his brother's collecting journeys through South America.