Antique Print of Various Insects Including a Grasshopper
€ 220
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Sheet size
25 × 17 cm (9.8 × 6.7 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-12902-103
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
Wear consistent with age and use. General age-related toning. Minor wear and soiling, blank verso. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
Three grasshoppers and locusts on a single plate, an original antique engraving with hand color from the Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle, edited by Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny and published in sixteen volumes between 1841 and 1849. The plate is headed "Insectes, Orthopteres", with the lettering "Acridiens" in the caption.
Three species are numbered and named in the caption: figure 1 the Truxalis miniata, a long-bodied green grasshopper with pink-flushed hindwings and tall pointed head, figure 2 the Acridium moestum, a large tree locust with dark brown wings, and figure 4 the Tetrix lucifer, a small green species. Around them are anatomical details of heads, legs and mouthparts, drawn in outline. The engraver's credits, "Marchand pinx." and "Schmid sculp.", appear below the figures.
The Dictionnaire was edited by Charles d'Orbigny (1806 to 1876), a French botanist and geologist who specialized in the Tertiary of France. He was the younger brother of the naturalist and South American explorer Alcide d'Orbigny, and at the Museum of Natural History in Paris he identified many of the flowering plants returned from his brother's collecting journeys through South America.
