Diving Beetles and Water Beetles with Larva, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1815

This hand colored copper engraving of water beetles, including large diving beetles shown with their larva and pupa, comes from the later Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch. Eleven figures show the beetles from above, from below and in flight, from the big olive green diving beetle to small species drawn beside scale lines.

The heading reads Insecten LXXXIX and Insectes LXXXIX, and the mark at lower right reads XVIII.B.47. The predatory larva curls across the top beside a pupa in its dark cell, one beetle opens its wing cases to show the membranous flying wings, and the lower rows show dark beetles edged in yellow together with smaller brown and black species. The species are identified here only at group level.

The later volumes of the Vienna edition, published in Vienna under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend, continued the reprint of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Weimar Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in volumes of fifty plates each, with German and French headings in place of the three languages of the earlier plates. The Weimar original, the great illustrated encyclopaedia for children issued by the Landes Industrie Comptoir from 1790 onwards, was followed subject for subject, and the plates were sold 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 XVIII, which places it circa 1813 to 1818.

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 is in good condition for its age, with light toning, faint show-through of text, a vertical crease in the right margin and a small corner chip; the beetles are clean and bright.

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