Pufferfish, Porcupinefish and Ocean Sunfish, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This hand colored copper engraving of pufferfishes, a spiny porcupinefish, the ocean sunfish and a boxfish comes from the Vienna edition of Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch. Five inflatable and armored fishes are gathered on one sheet, the porcupinefish bristling with spines and fins tipped in scarlet.

The plate is printed in landscape format, with the heading Fische, Pisces and Poissons, plate IX, engraved up the right hand margin and the mark II.B.44 at lower left. The figures show a pufferfish with striped belly, the porcupinefish, a dark puffer spotted in bright blue, the round gray ocean sunfish, and a horned boxfish with a honeycomb carapace. The individual species names are given here by appearance, as the text leaf is not present.

The Vienna edition was published by Anton Pichler under the title Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend, with German and French text, in volumes of fifty plates each, and its plates were newly engraved in Vienna, many of them by the brothers Jacob Xaver and J. J. Schmuzer. It follows the Weimar original of Friedrich Justin Bertuch, the great illustrated encyclopaedia for children issued by the Landes Industrie Comptoir from 1790 onwards, subject for subject, and it was sold with the plates 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 II, which places it circa 1801 to 1807.

A plate like this suits a kitchen, a dining room, a study or a coastal house, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch fish plates, where the color and the consistent format of the series make a lively and coherent wall.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with even toning, a small nick at the right edge and a few small spots in the margins; the hand colored image is clean and bright.

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