Caterpillars and Moths on a Cherry Branch, Albin Hand-Colored Plate 86, 1720

Caterpillars and moths on a cherry branch, an original hand colored copper engraving of 1720 from Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of English Insects. The plate has no title caption; the lettering engraved below the image is a dedication: "TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE Lady Elizabeth Compton this plate is humbly Dedicated by Eleazar Albin."

A cherry branch runs across the upper half bearing two red cherries, its leaves bitten through in places. A hairy caterpillar marked in red, yellow and gray feeds on a leaf at the upper right. A gray moth with finely patterned wings sits at the right and a second gray moth at the left, with a dark chrysalis between them in the middle of the sheet. The lower half carries a further leafy branch with a second caterpillar, striped in yellow, red and dark gray, along the stem.

At the lower right after Albin's name the engraver signs H: Terasson, Sculp, London, (Sculp, short for sculpsit, engraved it). The number "86" is written by hand in ink at the top right of the sheet; no engraved plate number is visible. The insects are keyed with small engraved letters (a, b, c and so on); no species names are printed.

The sheet is plate 86 of Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of English Insects, published in London in 1720. The title page of the book reads "A NATURAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH INSECTS, Illustrated with a Hundred Copper Plates, Curiously Engraven from the Life: And (for those who desire it) Exactly Colored by the Author ELEAZAR ALBIN, Painter", with the imprint "LONDON: Printed for the Author, and sold by William and John Innys at the West End of St Paul's. MDCCXX." The book thus offered its plates colored by the author for those who desired it. Albin was a painter and naturalist working in London.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Slight wear at the top left corner.

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