| Maria Sibyllia Merian — Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphoibus insectorum Surinamensium |
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Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphoibus insectorum Surinamensium |
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Folio (20 4/8 x 14 4/8 inches). Hand-colored engraved frontispiece heightened in gilt after F. Ottens, title-page lettering HEIGHTENED IN GILT and with hand-colored engraved vignette, dedication to Balthazar Scott lettered in gilt and with hand-colored armorial vignette, 72 hand-colored engraved plates, all counter-proof and before letters. Contemporary diced calf, each cover elaborately decorated in gilt with broad borders of multiple fillets and floral roll tools, spine elaborately decorated in nine compartments, gilt-lettered in one, all edges gilt (recently and expertly rebacked preserving the original spine by James and Stuart Brockman Ltd, full report available on request). Modern cloth folding box. Provenance: 19th-century South Library bookplate of the Earls of Macclesfield on the front paste-down, and on the verso of the front free endpaper dated 1860, discreet blind-stamp on title-page. " gorgeous butterflies flying around luxuriant flowering or fruiting plants" (Stearn) AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE COPY of the second edition of the "Dissertatio ", in Latin, in its most desirable state, enlarged with 12 full-page plates not included in the first edition of 1705. In the counter-proof process the image is printed from a freshly pulled print, giving a much softer impression and allowing the delicate hand-coloring to appear as close to the original drawing as possible. The rarity of counterproof copies, especially those before letters, indicates that they were reserved only for a few select collectors. Daughter of German-Swiss engraver and publisher Matthias Merian, step-daughter of the flower painter Jacob Marrell, and wife of his student the painter Johann Graff of Nuremberg, Maria Sibylla dedicated herself to the study of European insects and their metamorphoses. In June of 1699 she sailed with her daughter Dorothea to the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America to study and paint the insect life there. They stayed for nearly two years and gained "an unprecedented glimpse of the teeming insect life of tropical South America, with gorgeous butterflies flying around luxuriant flowering or fruiting plants with large many-colored caterpillars crawling over the leaves. [The plates] have earned Maria Merian an honoured place in the history of tropical entomology as also in botanical illustrations" (Stearn). Sadly Merian died before the final twelve plates were published and this enlarged edition of the "Dissertatio" was published under the supervision of her daughter. From the celebrated library of the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire, England, accumulated from the early 18th century by generations of of the Parker family, and sold (over successive sales) by Sothebys. The first Earl of Macclesfield was Thomas Parker, 1st Baron Parker, made Viscount Parker, of Ewelm in the County of Oxford, and Earl of Macclesfield, in the County Palatine of Chester in 1716. He was Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench from 1710 to 1718 and Lord High Chancellor from 1718 to 1725. Probably acquired by Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield (17 March 1811 - 24 July 1896) Conservative Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire from 1837 until 1841. Nissen 1341; Sitwell "Great Flower Books," p. 67; Dunthorne 205; Hunt 467 (1726 edition), 483 (French edition); Landwehr 131; "Oak Spring Flora" 101; Stearn "The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars", 1978. Purchased for $260,000 (including premium) at Sothebys' 16th March 2004, lot 71. |
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