Hairy Caterpillar and Moths on Blackberry Bramble, Albin Antique Plate 81, 1720

A hairy caterpillar and two brown moths on a blackberry bramble, an original hand colored copper engraving of 1720 from Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of English Insects. The plate has no title caption; the lettering engraved below the image is a dedication: "TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE Thomas Earl of Pembroke & Montgomery, &c. this Plate is humbly Dedicated by Eleazar Albin".

A thorny bramble branch crosses the sheet, its toothed leaves bitten through in places, with a cluster of deep red and purple blackberries at the right. A large hairy caterpillar banded in orange and black lies along the upper leaf. A brown moth with banded wings sits at the upper left, a second brown moth spreads its wings at the lower right, and a dark red chrysalis lies at the lower left.

At the lower right below the dedication the engraver signs H: Terasson, Sculp, London, (Sculp, short for sculpsit, engraved it). The number "81" is written by hand in ink at the top right of the sheet; no engraved plate number is visible. The insects are keyed with small engraved letters (a, b, c and so on); no species names are printed.

The sheet is plate 81 of Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of English Insects, published in London in 1720. The title page of the book reads "A NATURAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH INSECTS, Illustrated with a Hundred Copper Plates, Curiously Engraven from the Life: And (for those who desire it) Exactly Colored by the Author ELEAZAR ALBIN, Painter", with the imprint "LONDON: Printed for the Author, and sold by William and John Innys at the West End of St Paul's. MDCCXX." The book thus offered its plates colored by the author for those who desired it. Albin was a painter and naturalist working in London.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. All four corners read as present in the scan. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left. One larger brown mark.

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