Five Tree Frogs, Antique Bertuch Print, Vienna, circa 1815

This antique frog print shows five frogs seen from above, from a pale yellow frog to a marbled red and brown tree frog, on an original hand colored plate from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch headed Amphibien XXXIV.

The two upper frogs are a pale, straw colored frog and a lilac gray frog with spotted and banded legs. Below them a marbled red and brown tree frog, a rosy brown frog and a small dark red frog are lined up in a row, all drawn from above so that their toe discs and patterns are clear. The species named in Bertuch's text have not yet been confirmed. The generous white space around the figures gives the plate a calm, modern look.

The plate comes from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch, published in Vienna under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend. Its source is the celebrated Bilderbuch fuer Kinder, the picture book for children conceived and edited by Friedrich Justin Bertuch in Weimar, whose plates were engraved afresh by Viennese engravers for this edition. Most plates carry their subject class and number in German, Latin and French across the top, so that the work could teach languages as well as natural history. Here the heading belongs to the series of amphibians, a class in which Bertuch, following the naturalists of his day, grouped snakes, lizards, crocodiles, frogs and even seals. The small engraved mark XV.B.25 places the sheet in volume 15 of the Vienna edition, which corresponds to the eighth volume of the Weimar original, dated 1813, so this Vienna plate cannot be earlier than that.

It is a copperplate engraving, colored by hand with watercolor in the manner of the Weimar original. Bertuch drew his images from the best natural history books of his time, and the result is a lively, accessible record of how the natural world was understood around 1800. Single plates from the Bilderbuch are popular with collectors of antique natural history prints, and a group of related plates makes a handsome display in a study, library or hallway.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a few spots and small brown stains in the lower right margin; the image is clean.

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