About this sheet
This hand coloured copper engraving of four freshwater fishes of the carp family comes from the Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch. The fish are set one above another with their silvery scales, red fins and green, blue and olive backs finely coloured by hand.
The heading reads Fische, Pisces and Poissons, plate XLII, the French numeral lightly blurred, and the mark at lower right reads XV.B.33. The four figures show deep bodied and more slender cyprinids of the kind found in central European rivers, such as roach, rudd, ide or chub. The individual species are not named here because the accompanying text leaf is absent.
The later volumes of the Vienna edition, published in Vienna under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend, continued the reprint of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Weimar Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in volumes of fifty plates each, with German and French headings in place of the three languages of the earlier plates. The Weimar original, the great illustrated encyclopaedia for children issued by the Landes Industrie Comptoir from 1790 onwards, was followed subject for subject, and the plates were sold 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 XV, which places it circa 1813 to 1818.
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 toning and scattered small foxing spots, mostly in the margins with a few in the image, and faint pencil marks at lower right.
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.
