Caterpillars and Moths with Rose Hips, Albin Antique Plate 91, 1720

Caterpillars and moths with a spray of rose hips, 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 in script: "To Elizabeth Lady Stuart. Wife of S.r Simeon Stuart of Hantshire, Bar.t This Plate is humbly dedicated by Eleaz.r Albin".

The upper group shows a thorny rose stem with toothed leaves and four scarlet hips. A slender twig-like caterpillar is held stiffly out from the stem. A finely marked gray and white moth sits at the upper left, a dark red chrysalis at the upper right and a pale patterned moth at the right. Below, a twig with lobed leaves carries a second, plumper caterpillar with a red head feeding at the edge of a leaf, with pale moths at the left and lower left, a small speckled larva at the right and a chrysalis at the lower right.

No artist's or engraver's credit is lettered on this sheet beyond Albin's own name in the dedication. The plate number "XCI" is engraved in roman numerals at the top right. The insects are keyed with small engraved letters (a, b, c and so on); no species names are printed.

The sheet is plate 91 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. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and bottom right corners.

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