About this sheet
This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows the rambutan, the hairy red tropical fruit of Southeast Asia, in a large and colourful single subject plate. The heading reads Pflanzen CIX and the Vienna mark XI.B.42 is engraved at lower right.
The branch has broad glossy leaves, a spray of small flowers and a cluster of the soft spined fruit, coloured in green and bright red to show it ripening, with a peeled fruit at lower left revealing the translucent white flesh. The rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum, is a relative of the lychee and was still a rarity to European readers when the Weimar plate first appeared in 1807. It is one of the most decorative fruit plates in the series.
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 begun by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French; Pichler issued the first ten volumes, and the later volumes, including this one, are believed to have been issued by B. Ph. Bauer in Vienna. 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 XI.B.42. Vienna volume XI follows Weimar volume VI, which appeared in 1807, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is a copper engraving with original hand colour, as the Vienna volumes were issued coloured.
A plate like this suits a kitchen, study or garden room, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch botanical sheets of the same size. For a collector it is also a neat example of how the Bilderbuch travelled beyond Weimar in the years around 1800.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light brown staining and some foxing towards the foot, a small marginal loss at the right edge and pencil notes in the lower margin.
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.
