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
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.