Venom & Vibrance: A Study of European Vipers & North American Copperheads, 1780

1780 · Birds, Plants & Natural History

Venom & Vibrance: A Study of European Vipers & North American Copperheads, 1780

Name: Venom & Vibrance: A Study of European Vipers & North American Copperheads, 1780
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13674-23
Price: 225 USD
Availability: InStock

$225

€200 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1780
Kind: Birds, Plants & Natural History
Size: 13 × 21 cm (5.1 × 8.3 in)
Condition: Good. Condition is good. Lower margin cut short. Overall toning and other small incorrections due to age and handling over a few hundred years. Please study the images carefully.
Period: The Early Republic
Reference: BG-13674-23

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

Two snakes on a hand-colored copper engraving, dated 1780 and captioned in German. The lettering reads "1. die gemeine Otter. Coluber Berus Lin." and "2. die Kreuzotter, Kupferschlange, Coluber Chersea Lin.". The sheet carries the credits "I. E. Ihle del." and "L. C. Bock fc.", the draughtsman and the engraver.

Each snake is drawn full length in a sinuous curve against the plain ground of the page, with a flicking tongue and a yellow eye. The upper one, number 2, is a coppery brown with a dark zigzag band running down its back and a darker head with a V-shaped mark. The lower one, number 1, is silvery gray with a row of dark bars across the body and a spotted neck, the scales shown in a fine net. Both are named according to the Linnaean system, with the old genus Coluber that Linnaeus used for most snakes.

The plates come from a German natural history of the late eighteenth century.

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