Black and Green Woodpeckers with Nuthatch, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

About this sheet

This antique bird print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows the woodpeckers and other tree climbing birds of European forests. The heading reads Vögel XXXIV and the plate is signed J. X. Schmuzer beside the Vienna mark V.B.28.

Figure 1 is the black woodpecker with its red crown, clinging to a broken trunk, and figure 2 the green woodpecker with its red cap and black moustache. Figures 3 and 4 are spotted woodpeckers in black, white and red, figure 5 the blue grey nuthatch and figure 6 the small brown treecreeper, each shown on the bark where it feeds. The tree stumps and tufts of grass give the plate a lively woodland setting, and it is one of the most popular bird subjects in the Bilderbuch.

Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747 to 1822) began his Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in Weimar in 1790 as a picture encyclopaedia for young readers, and over four decades it grew to almost 1,200 plates on plants, animals, peoples, antiquities and the sciences. Its success led to other editions, and this sheet comes from the Vienna edition published by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French. The Vienna plates were newly engraved after the Weimar originals, keep the Weimar subject numbering in a heading in German, Latin and French, and carry a volume and plate number in the lower margin, here the mark V.B.28. Vienna volume V follows Weimar volume III, which appeared in 1798, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is signed J. X. Schmuzer at lower left, for Jacob Xaver Schmuzer, one of the Viennese engravers of this edition. The plate is a copper engraving with original hand colour, as the Vienna volumes were issued coloured.

A bird plate like this suits a study, library or hallway, and several sheets from the Bilderbuch hang well together in a matching row. For a collector of ornithological prints it is an affordable and characterful example of early nineteenth century natural history teaching.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning and minor corner creasing in the margins; the image itself is clean and well preserved.

This is an original antique print, 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.