Centipede, Dung Beetle and Ant Lion, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This hand colored copper engraving of remarkable insects, a giant centipede, a dung beetle rolling its ball, a velvet ant and an ant lion larva, comes from the Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch, engraved by J. X. Schmuzer. The Bilderbuch text calls the plate Sonderbare Insecten, curious insects, and names the Indian scolopendra, the American pill beetle, the velvet ant and the ant lion.

The heading reads Insecten, Insecta and Insectes, plate IX, and the mark at lower right reads IV.B.29, with the signature J. X. Schmuzer. The long centipede runs across the foot of the sheet, while above it the black beetle pushes its ball of dung, a scarlet velvet ant crosses a patch of sand, a green and pink beetle is shown from below, and the fierce jawed ant lion larva sits at the center in bands of pink, yellow and blue.

The Vienna edition was published by Anton Pichler under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend, with German and French text, in volumes of fifty plates each, and its plates were newly engraved in Vienna, many of them by the brothers Jacob Xaver and J. J. Schmuzer. It follows the Weimar original of Friedrich Justin Bertuch, the great illustrated encyclopaedia for children issued by the Landes Industrie Comptoir from 1790 onwards, subject for subject, and it was sold with the plates colored by hand. The small mark at the foot, giving the Vienna volume and plate number, is what distinguishes these sheets from the Weimar issue. As a copper engraving colored by hand for a teaching book, it combines scientific ambition with a direct, appealing clarity. This sheet comes from Vienna volume IV, which places it circa 1801 to 1807.

A plate like this suits a study, a library or a collection of early natural history, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch insect and microscope plates, where the variety of subjects and the consistent format of the series come into their own.

The sheet shows marked show-through of text from the reverse across the image, a brown stain in the lower right margin and a few spots at left; the figures remain clear.

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