Catalog Archive
Auction 160, Lot 788

"[Lot of 2 - Snakes] Tab XIV [and] Tab VII", Seba, Albertus

Subject: Prints Animal

Period: 1734 (circa)

Publication: Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri

Color: Hand Color

Size:
10.5 x 16.4 inches
26.7 x 41.7 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

This pair of sheets depict six snakes, an Agama lizard, and a bird. These sheets appeared in Albertus Seba's Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri, a thesaurus of natural history published in four volumes, two of which were published after his death. The volumes contained 449 plates depicting birds, mammals, insects, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, spiders, fish, molluscs, crustacea, minerals, fossils, and shells. Seba, a Dutchman, opened a pharmacy in Amsterdam around 1700 and asked sailors to bring him exotic flora and fauna for him to use in his pharmacy. Thus began a collection that Seba eventually sold to Peter the Great, and which became part of the foundation of the Kunstkammer museum.

References:

Condition: B+

Crisp impression on watermarked paper with a few small spots of foxing and light toning along the edges of the sheets. Remnants of hinge tape on verso.

Estimate: $400 - $500

Unsold

Closed on 11/16/2016

Archived