Rare 1791 Johannes Esper Hand-Colored Engraving of CORALS, Antipathes Tab. II

Description: Rare 1791 Hand-Colored Copperplate Engraving from Johann Christoph Esper's masterwork: Die PFLANZENTHIERE in ABBILDUNGEN NACH DER NATUR mit Farben erleuchtet nebst BESCHREIBUNGEN Tab. II Antipathes paniculata. I'm listing a group of carefully selected best of these engravings of Corals, Sea-Fans & Sponges from the magnum opus of Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper (1742-1810) on Cnidaria. These are magnificent, intricate, stunning plates, & now extremely rare. Reproductions of these as 'giclees' have been featured as wall-art in the decor world lately. The examples listed here are the scarce antique originals, & in generally superb condition.They are incredibly compelling & historic Natural History engravings, illustrating the fascinating graphic forms of these amazing life-forms. The Artist & Author:Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper (2 June 1742 – 27 July 1810) was a German zoologist and naturalist. Born in Wunsiedel in Bavaria, he was professor of zoology at Erlangen university. Eugen and his brother Friedrich were introduced to natural history at an early age by their father Friedrich Lorenz Esper, an amateur botanist. Esper devoted himself to the study of nature and the preparation of manuscripts relating to natural history. He was the author of a series of booklets entitled Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen which were published between 1776 and 1807. These were richly illustrated; minerals, birds, plants, shells and insects being presented on 438 hand-coloured plates. A second work was published in 1829–1830. Esper also described over 200 new species of ascidians, bryozoans, cnidarians, and marine algae in his iconic Die Pflanzenthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur (the present source if these prints). Many of Esperǯs names are still considered valid today. The Volumes:'Die Pflanzenthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur' (Translation: The 'plant animals' in illustrations after nature : illuminated with colors along with descriptions) by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper, published in Nuremberg 1791 is one of the earliest and rarest work on corals. Using the Linnaean system, he described and illustrated an immense number of corals and sponges, published in this important work over the course of 4 decades.At the time, these creatures were called "Pflanzenthiere" or 'Plant Animals' as they were thought to be somewhere between a plant & an animal, similarly some cnidarians were called 'Zoophytes' which literally means 'animal-plant'. They are, of course, as we now know, entirely animals. The Plates:Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper which was hand-mined, smelted & rolled, printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, inked & colored with hand-ground pigments individually by hand, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books. Condition:Appears to be in excellent condition for a 233-year-old engraving. The hand-coloring appears to remain sharp & brilliant as the day it was painted. very little age-toning for a print this old. An exceptionally clean, pristine print on thick, creamy wove paper with crisp plate-marks. Please peruse the detailed photos.These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.Text Page(s): This one comes without original text page. I've added a scan of a sample cover page from one of the volumes to the listing photos for reference, it's not part of the listing. About This Gorgeous Coral:Antipathes is a genus of coral in the order Antipatharia, composed of black coral (so named for its black skeleton).Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, which are surrounded by their colored polyps (part of coral that is alive).I'm not finding much information on Antipathes paniculata, perhaps it's an obsolete name. But it's a stunning structure.Size: 10" x 8" inches approximately.Shipping: Multiple prints combine into one USPS Flat-Rate envelope. If you'd like to combine & need more time to choose, please send a message & we'll do our best to oblige. If you're assessed multiple shipping for one combined package, we'll endeavor to refund any overage asap. Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 129 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2025-01-21T04:37:17.000Z

Shipping Cost: 11 USD