Goldcrest and Firecrest with Songbirds, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1820

This antique bird print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows the goldcrest and the firecrest, Europe's smallest birds, with three further songbirds. The heading reads Vögel CVI and the Vienna mark XIX.B.42 is engraved at lower right.

Figures 1 and 2 are the goldcrest and firecrest, olive green with bright orange and yellow crown stripes, the firecrest marked by its bold white eyebrow. Figure 3 is a dark thrush like bird with a yellow bill, figure 4 a gray bird with a rosy breast and figure 5 a streaked bird with yellow edged wings; these three are not named here, as the companion text is not present. This plate comes from the tenth Weimar volume of 1818, late in the series, when the bird plates became more detailed and closer to nature.

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 begun by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French; Pichler issued the first ten volumes, and the later volumes, including this one, are believed to have been issued by B. Ph. Bauer in Vienna. 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 XIX.B.42. Vienna volume XIX follows Weimar volume X, which appeared in 1818, so this plate was published no earlier than that. 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, show through of text from the reverse and a small chip at the lower right edge; the image is sound.

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