So far I'm not readily finding a direct source for the work this amazing, fascinating engraving comes from, but the style is reminiscent of Lavater's famous work on Physiognamy.
Here's the best Google Lens AI can give me about this apparently extremely rare print:
"This is an 18th-century scientific engraving depicting the comparative anatomy of various animal heads and skulls, likely from a French natural history publication.
The plate is a collaboration between two notable French artists: Artist Antoine Humblot (d. 1758), an illustrator and publisher active in Paris during the mid-18th century. Engraver: Maisonneuve, a skilled engraver who worked with Humblot on several scientific and decorative projects during the Enlightenment.
The illustration highlights the diversity of dental and bone structures across different species:
Fig. 1: Top profile of a reptilian or fish-like skull.
Fig. 3 & 4: Detailed studies of mammalian skulls, showing the specialized teeth of carnivores (Fig. 4) and possibly a small primate or rodent (Fig. 3).
Fig. 5: A detailed rendering of a living animal's head—resembling a wild boar or a large rodent—with its mouth open to reveal its specific dentition.
Fig. 6: A study focusing on the elongated ears and jaw of a animal like a rabbit or hare".
The Artist:
Antoine Humblot (c. 1700 – 1758) was a French painter, illustrator, and engraver best known for his satirical prints and contributions to major 18th-century scientific and historical publications. He was appointed as a draughtsman for the King (dessinateur du Roi) and is frequently associated with the bustling social and economic life of Paris.
The Plates & Technique:
Line-engraving or Copperplate engraving is a highly exacting & labor-intensive process for intaglio printmaking. The original drawing is cut into the surface of a copper or steel plate with a hand-held sharp steel point or burin, with shading created by many fine cut lines, or hatching. Before printing takes place, the plate is heated, covered with ink. The warm ink seeps into the finest of depressions and fills the lines and textures of the drawing. The rest of the plate is cleaned off. The copper plate is now pressed with a printing press on to moistened paper which soaks up the ink from the depressions in the plate. The copperplate-engraving technique is very exacting, time-consuming and exhausting for the engraver, who needs a lot of strength for it.
Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper or steel 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.
Condition:
Excellent condition to my eye or a plate clearly very old. Typical light age-toning & antiquarian character. Please peruse the photos.
These prints are often 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 & handled, etc. Occaisionally a gallery or dealer in the past would lightly pencil an inventory note on the back or in a margin on the sheet. Please examine the photos & details carefully.
Text Page(s): This one comes without original text pages.
Size: 8-1/4" x 8-1/4" approximately.
Combined Shipping:
Yes! Multiple prints can be combined into one package. Larger prints may need to be shipped in tube. eBay should auto-combine your items if you put all of your selections into your shopping cart & check out all together as one order. If you purchase them individually, eBay charges shipping on each, which I then will need to refund after. If you're assessed multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund any overage asap.
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Please note: The information I've included in this listing is based on my best research & observations as an enthusiast of these works, not a professional historian of antiquarian books & prints. I do like to offer some background information readily available to me but make no claims representations of total accuracy. I also sometimes offer my own perceptions, appreciations, observations, opinions & regard for these works, which are my own, & not to be construed as definitive, scholarly statements. Any corrections or further information you might offer would certainly appreciated! The scans in the images are my best efforts to accurately show the item. Antique prints & old paper are notoriously tricky to scan accurately. In my experience, scanners tend to be thrown off by the off-whites & gradations in age-toned paper. If the scanner produces a scan that's too dark or too brown, etc, I'll often try to reasonably color-correct to represent the print as accurately as possible. I'm not a professional in color-correcting images yet I try my best to show the print as close to the original as possible. I also find that different monitors show colors differently, & eBay's system can sometimes throw off the colors a bit in the uploaded JPEG images as they appear on their site. Thank you!