A pair of large and decorative hand-coloured faximile etchings after Albertus Seba, from his monumental work Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri. Modern.

Why we like it

Exquisitely engraved and hand-coloured in the 18th century, it evokes the fashion for exoticism in the Enlightenment era Europe.

Hand-colored copper-plate engraving, signed in the bottom A. Van der Laan, mounted in a decorative gilt faux bamboo frames.

History

Albertus Seba (1665-1736), an Amsterdam apothecary, made a fortune in the service of the VOC (the Dutch East India Company) and used that and his far-flung trading network to assemble not one, but two great cabinets of natural history specimens. His private museum became a major attraction in the city for both fellow naturalists such as Carl Linnaeus and Maria Sibylla Merian, and for visiting dignitaries and the simply curious. This was the collection that is spectacularly recorded in a great work of 1734-65 called Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri. The original works are rare and precious, one complete set sold from the collection of Baronne Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza at Christie's in Paris on 28 November 2017 for €420,000.

Dimensions

Frames:

63 cm by 79 cm
24.75 in by 31 in

Colour Plates:

44.5 cm by 57 cm
17.5 in by 22.5 in