Antique South American Horned Frog Engraving – Bertuch, c. 1807

Name: Antique South American Horned Frog Engraving – Bertuch, c. 1807
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-14336-134
Price: 345 USD
Availability: InStock

$345

€310 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1807
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 30 × 24 cm (11.8 × 9.4 in)
Condition: Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Good antique condition with light overall age-related toning, scattered small spots and minor marks and imperfections consistent with its age. The original hand coloring remains particularly attractive, with green, violet, ochre and reddish tones.
Period: The Early Republic
Places: South America
Reference: BG-14336-134

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 horned frog of South America, an original hand-colored copper engraving from Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch für Kinder, published in Weimar around 1807. The plate heading reads "Amphibien XXVI", "Amphibia XXVI" and "Amphibies XXVI".

The animal fills the lower part of the sheet in a large, nearly overhead view, marked A: a broad, heavy-bodied frog with a yellowish-brown body covered in pointed warts and with violet-blue markings edged in white, pale green limbs and an orange, horn-like projection over each eye. Above it, marked B, a separate study shows the head at natural size, with its large dark eye, orange eyelid horn and dotted skin. Bertuch calls the animal "Die gehörnte Kröte", the horned toad, and records it from South America, including Brazil and the island of Santa Catarina, under the name Rana cornuta.

His text notes that earlier European pictures had been drawn from faded specimens kept in alcohol, and that this one was based on a study made from life by the naturalist Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius (1769 to 1857).

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