About this sheet
This hand coloured copper engraving of gold fishes, the golden tench, the orfe, the Chinese goldfish and the highback, comes from the Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch. The Bilderbuch text calls the plate Gold Fische, and the whole sheet glows in orange, gold and red.
The heading reads Fische, Pisces and Poissons, plate VI, and the mark at lower right reads I.B.41, the last digit slightly trimmed. Unusually, the lettering and the engraved lines appear to be printed in a red brown ink rather than black, which suits the subject. The spotted golden tench leads, followed by the striped highback, the orfe and the Chinese goldfish, the ancestor of every ornamental goldfish in Europe.
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 I, 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, faint show through of the verso text and a few small spots in the margins; the image is clean and the colour strong.
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.
