Six Hawks and Buzzards, Birds of Prey, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This antique bird print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows six birds of prey of the hawk and buzzard kind. The heading reads Vögel XLVI and the plate is signed by Jacob Xaver Schmuzer above the Vienna mark VI.B.46.

The birds perch on branches and stones: a rufous barred hawk, a large brown buzzard or eagle on a block, a speckled gray hawk, a pale streaked bird with a crested head, a striking slate blue raptor with white underparts and a red face shown with wings half open, and a dark brown bird with a pale head. Each is drawn in profile to show the hooked bill and strong talons. The individual species are not named here, as the companion text is not present, but the plate is a strong and decorative study of raptors.

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 VI.B.46. Vienna volume VI follows Weimar volume III, which appeared in 1798, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is signed Jacob Xaver Schmuzer at lower right, the Viennese engraver of many plates in this edition. 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 light toning and small chips along the edges, well clear of the image, which is clean and strong.

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