Antique Lion, Jaguar, Leopard and Cheetah Print, Big Cats by Kolb, circa 1890

This antique natural history print shows a lion, a jaguar, a leopard, a lynx and a cheetah, an original plate from C. F. A. Kolb's Naturgeschichte der Säugethiere, published in Stuttgart by Hoffmann circa 1890. A maned lion stands at the center of a palm fringed landscape, a jaguar rests on a rock above, a lynx watches from a tree trunk, and a cheetah and a leopard confront each other over a small prey animal in the foreground.

The sheet is lettered 1. Abtheilung and Säugethiere 5. Blatt at the head, and every animal is numbered and named beneath the image in German Fraktur with its Latin name, here Löwe, Jaguar, Leopard, Luchs and Gepard. This is the great cat plate of the series, bringing the lion, jaguar, leopard, lynx and cheetah together in one decorative scene.

Carl Friedrich August Kolb designed his Naturgeschichte der Säugethiere as an Anschauungs Unterricht für Schule und Haus, an object lesson for school and home, and the title page of this second edition announces 123 colored figures on 18 double folio plates together with 63 woodcuts in the text. The publisher was the Hoffmann'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung of Wilhelm Nübling in Stuttgart, and the plates were printed by color lithography, a process that allowed German publishers of the later nineteenth century to issue large, bright teaching images at a price schools and families could afford. Kolb arranged the mammals in systematic order across the series, so each sheet brings together related animals from several continents in a single imagined landscape. Plates devoted to the big cats are among the most sought after in any nineteenth century natural history series.

With its broad double page format and lively color, this chromolithograph suits a study, a library, a child's room or a natural history wall, and it can be grouped with other plates from the same series to build a set.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a faint center fold as issued and a few small spots in the margins; the image is clean and strong.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.