Antique Print of Stickleback Fishes, 1861

1861 · Birds, Plants & Natural History

Antique Print of Stickleback Fishes, 1861

Name: Antique Print of Stickleback Fishes, 1861
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13214-35
Price: 245 USD
Availability: InStock

$245

€220 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1861
Kind: Birds, Plants & Natural History
Size: 23.4 × 15.3 cm (9.2 × 6 in)
Condition: Good. General age-related toning. Minor wear and soiling. With original protective sheet attached. Blank verso. Please study image carefully.
Period: Westward Expansion & Civil War
Reference: BG-13214-35

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

The nest building of the stickleback, a hand-colored engraving from the Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle, edited by Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny and published in 1861. The plate is headed "Dict. Univ. d'Hist. Nat." and "Poissons", marked Pl. 20, and titled "Nidification des Epinoches".

Three figures show the sequence, as the caption explains. In figure 1 the male stickleback works on his nest, a ball of green weed. In figure 2 the female spawns in the nest while the male stands guard, the male in an orange-and-silver breeding color and the female half inside the green mass. Figure 3 shows a young stickleback enlarging the openings of its nest, built among a tangle of pale branching twigs.

Sticklebacks are the family Gasterosteidae, ray-finned fishes found in fresh, brackish and marine waters across the northern hemisphere, and the male's nest building is one of the best-known behaviors of any fish.

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