Original Antique Print of American Crocodile and Gharial by Bertuch, 1802
€ 269
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1802
Sheet size
24.4 × 19.5 cm (9.6 × 7.7 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14335-3
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Wear consistent with age and use. Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Light age-related toning and occasional minor spotting. Original hand coloring remains attractive. Please refer to the photographs for further details of condition.
About this sheet
An American crocodile and a gharial on one plate, an original hand-colored copper engraving titled "Amphibien XIV / Amphibies XIV", from Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch für Kinder, published in Weimar in 1802. The engraver, named as Jacob Hauer in the old text, has signed the plate at the lower right.
Figure 1, the "Americanische Crocodil", which Bertuch labeled with the then-current scientific name Lacerta Alligator, lies along a grassy rock with a brown back and a long toothed snout, and waves wash around the base of the rock. Figure 2, the long-snouted gharial or Ganges crocodile, called Lacerta Gangetica in the text, rests in profile on a flat stone patched with moss, with a green back, pink flanks and a very slender snout. The hand coloring is in browns, greens and yellow.
Bertuch (1747 to 1822), a German publisher in Weimar, issued the Bilderbuch für Kinder from 1790, an illustrated encyclopedia for young readers that eventually filled many volumes of finely engraved and hand-colored plates on natural history, geography, costume and technology.
