About this sheet
This hand coloured copper engraving of five trout, the salmon trout, pond trout, stone trout, lake trout and alpine trout, comes from the Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch, engraved by J. X. Schmuzer. The Bilderbuch text calls the plate Forellen Arten, kinds of trout, and the fish are coloured with the red and black spotting that anglers know well.
The German heading is engraved Fische XIV while the Latin and French read Pisces XIX and Poissons XIX, so the German numeral is an engraver's error for XIX. The mark at lower right reads III.B.41 beneath the signature J. X. Schmuzer. The large salmon trout leads the plate, followed by smaller trout with scarlet spots and the silvery lake trout, with the alpine trout, a char, at the foot.
The Vienna edition was published by Anton Pichler under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend, with German and French text, in volumes of fifty plates each, and its plates were newly engraved in Vienna, many of them by the brothers Jacob Xaver and J. J. Schmuzer. It follows the Weimar original of Friedrich Justin Bertuch, the great illustrated encyclopaedia for children issued by the Landes Industrie Comptoir from 1790 onwards, subject for subject, and it was sold with the plates coloured by hand. The small mark at the foot, giving the Vienna volume and plate number, is what distinguishes these sheets from the Weimar issue. As a copper engraving coloured by hand for a teaching book, it combines scientific ambition with a direct, appealing clarity. This sheet comes from Vienna volume III, which places it circa 1801 to 1807.
A plate like this suits a kitchen, a dining room, a study or a coastal house, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch fish plates, where the colour and the consistent format of the series make a lively and coherent wall.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a small brown spot beside the image and a few faint marginal spots; the image itself is clean.
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.
