1784-1790 Scarce Botanical Copper-Plate Engraving From:
DICTIONNAIRE
DES
SCIENCES NATURELLES
Planches Botanique
PARIS 1816-1829
BOULEAU (BETULA)
(Birch Tree)
Scarce original antique, hand-colored pair of botanical engravings from the Botanique (Botany) section of Pierre Jean Francis Turpin’s epic Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles (Dictionary of Natural Sciences). Appears to be from the French version.
These are gems. The drawing, composition, detail work in the stipple-engraving, the brilliant coloring 'A La poupee' (colored in the plate) & hand-water-coloring are magnificent. The quality of the work is superb, a true find. Note that all the tiny, perfect lettering in the text is all hand-engraved into the plate!
The Volumes:
The Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles was an epic, comprehensive illustrated work of Natural History, with 72 volumes ultimately published between 1816 and 1830, comprising 60 volumes of text, 11 of plates and 1 of tables. The text was written by the luminaries of science of the time, everyone from Cuvier to Lamarck.
The Plates:
Most of the illustrations in this work were engraved under the direction of Turpin, after paintings by Turpin & Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, a total of some 1191 plates in black and white with deluxe versions in hand-color (with alternate versions of all the plate volumes published in entirely black & white apparently).
Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper which was hand-mined, smelted & rolled, printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, inked & colored with hand-ground pigments individually by hand, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books.
The Artist:
The French botanist and illustrator Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775 -1840) is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators of his time.
In 1794 he was stationed in Haiti as a member of the French Army where he met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau (1766-1854).
Turpin and Poiteau collaborated in a study of Haitian flora; they collected an herbarium of some 1,200 plants, of which Turpin made drawings of a large number, and of which they together described about 800 species.
Through his collaboration with Poiteau and other naturalists, Turpin created some of the finest watercolors and illustrations of plants that are known to exist.
As a botanical artist Turpin achieved a fame equal to that of Redouté. He collaborated on a number of the most important botanical publications of the early nineteenth century.
Condition:
Appears to be in good condition for a 209-year-old engraving. Clean with some typical antiquarian character & age. These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.
Text Page(s): This one comes without original text page(s). I've included a scan of a title page from one of the related volumes for reference, it's not part of this listing.
Size: 8x5 inches approximately.
