Eight Cuckoos from Around the World, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This antique bird print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows eight long tailed birds of the cuckoo kind, perched on short branches across the plate. The heading reads Vögel XI and the plate carries the initials J.X.S. above the Vienna mark II.B.10.

The figures range from brown and barred birds with long graduated tails to a slender blue gray bird, a crested black and chestnut bird with a red tail and a stout bird with a pink bill. The plate belongs to the early bird series of the first Weimar volume, where Bertuch grouped birds by family, and the cuckoos here come from Europe, Africa and Asia. The individual species are not named here, as the companion text is not present, but the family grouping is clear from the birds' shape and long tails.

Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747 to 1822) began his Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in Weimar in 1790 as a picture encyclopaedia for young readers, and over four decades it grew to almost 1,200 plates on plants, animals, peoples, antiquities and the sciences. Its success led to other editions, and this sheet comes from the Vienna edition published by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French. The Vienna plates were newly engraved after the Weimar originals, keep the Weimar subject numbering in a heading in German, Latin and French, and carry a volume and plate number in the lower margin, here the mark II.B.10. Vienna volume II follows Weimar volume I, which appeared in 1790 to 1792, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The initials J.X.S. in the lower margin are those of the Viennese engraver Jacob Xaver Schmuzer. The plate is a copper engraving with original hand color, as the Vienna volumes were issued colored.

A bird plate like this suits a study, library or hallway, and several sheets from the Bilderbuch hang well together in a matching row. For a collector of ornithological prints it is an affordable and characterful example of early nineteenth century natural history teaching.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with even toning, some show through of text from the reverse and small nicks at the right edge; the image is sound.

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