Esper, Eugenius Johann Christoph and Toussaint von Charpentier.

Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen von Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper. Herausgegeben mit Zusätzen von Toussaint von Charpentier. Europäische Gattungen. Leipzig: T.O. Weigel, [1829-1839], second edition, 5 text volumes bound in 6, 2 plate volumes and 4 supplements bound in 1, together 9 volumes, 441 hand-coloured engraved plates



[together with]



Ibid. Die ausländischen Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen. Leipzig: T.O. Weigel, [1830], 66 hand-coloured engraved plates



together 10 volumes, 4to (252 x 195mm.), uniform nineteenth-century half calf, gilt spines with 4 raised bands and gilt lettering, spines faded

Nissen ZBI 1316-1317

second and most complete edition of this superbly illustrated work on european and exotic butterflies. The set includes the often absent and rare volume Ausländische Schmetterlinge on exotic butterflies. "With Esper a real scholar arrives on the scene... and Esper cannot be denied a strong artistic gift, which was greatly helped by the Nuremberg engraver, Johann Carl Bock. During a stay in the Low Countries Bock was encouraged even more by artists of the school of Maria Sibylla Merian, who had formerly worked in Nuremberg" (Nissen, Bestiaries of five centuries, p. 71).

The fine plates are exceptionally delicately hand-coloured and engraved by Bock, Sturm, Tyroff, Volkart, Walbert, and others after Esper's own drawings.