Butterfly Life Cycle on Flowering Plant – Albin Hand-Colored Engraving, ca.1720

1720 · Birds, Plants & Natural History

Butterfly Life Cycle on Flowering Plant – Albin Hand-Colored Engraving, ca.1720

Name: Butterfly Life Cycle on Flowering Plant – Albin Hand-Colored Engraving, ca.1720
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-14185-51
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: 1720
Kind: Birds, Plants & Natural History
Size: 28.3 × 22.1 cm (11.1 × 8.7 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition for an early 18th-century engraving. Light age toning to the paper, minor spotting, and soft handling wear at the margins. Plate mark visible. Colors remain clear and well preserved.
Period: Colonial America
Reference: BG-14185-51

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

A butterfly and its host plant from A Natural History of English Insects by Eleazar Albin, an original copper engraving published in London in 1720 with period hand color. The plate number 51 is engraved in the upper right corner.

The plate follows the insect through its life cycle on the plant. A blue-green caterpillar (lettered a) feeds on a large leaf already eaten through with holes, a small chrysalis (b) lies below the stem, and four adult butterflies (c, d, e and f) are shown in different positions around the plant, which is drawn with a spray of pink flowers, seed pods and serrated leaves. Albin was among the first English naturalists to show insects on the plants they fed on, rather than as isolated specimens.

The engraved dedication at the foot reads "To William Byrd of Westover in Virginia Esqr. this Plate is humbly Dedicated by Elea[zar] Albin." William Byrd II was a Virginia planter, colonial official and writer, and the dedication links this English natural history plate to colonial Virginia. The subject itself is English, so the Virginia connection lies in the dedicatee alone.

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