Rare Maria Sibylla Merian's Watercolor of the Basket Star, from the superb 'Leningrad' Museum Edition, a beautiful, scarce facsimile of her original watercolors for:
 
D'AMBOINSCHE 
RARITEITKAMMER
BEHELZENDE EENE BESCHRYVINGE VAN ALLERHANDE  ZOO WEEKE ALS HARDE
SCHAALVISSCHEN
TE WEETEN RAARE (etc...)
GEORGIUS EVERHARDUS RUMPHIUS
1705

Watercolor for Plate XVI: Branching Star (Basket Star )

This is a scarce single plate from the only set produced at life size (that I know of) from the collection in the St. Petersburg Museum of Maria Sibylla Merian's watercolors, collected by czar Peter ('the great') among his many acquistions of the best works of the time, & stored away in Russia. 

The few selected single plates I have from this exceptionally superb facsimile set done in 1972, were from her paintings for Rumphius's stunning volume on the Natural History of the Dutch East Indies. D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer... (Which basically translates to 'The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet').

I've collected a group of the masterpiece copper engravings from this volume, it's quite stunning to see the original watercolors Merian painted, alongside the engravings. Included in the photos is a scan of the actual copperplate engraving made from her paintings, it's for reference & not included in the listing.

We are fortunate to be able to see this rare set of some 50 gorgeously carefully-crafted prints of this collection, if one has the wherewithal to acquire one of the few that comes to market occaisionally. There are, apparently, a few in museum & library collections.

These original paintings by Merian are sequestered away in Russia, housed in the Archives and Library of the Academy of Sciences, so not easily seen without travel to St. Petersburg, assuming they're on display.

The original set of folios came in a beautiful boxed-set, each one a separate, very fine reproduction of the originals. This edition has become very scarce & expensive in the antiquarian market, & almost never available as individual prints. The few examples I've found of individual folios from this set are offered at $350-$450 each.


About the Volumes:
Known colloquially as the Leningrad Watercolours, this gorgeous boxed set of folios contains also text in English, German, French, Russian. This was likely the Edition Leipzig, 1974. It was a limited edition of 50 fine large color facsimiles of original watercolors in 2 volumes, a plate volume with 50 fasicles loose as issued in a velum-backed hand-marbled board clamshell case. The text volume (319 pages of commentary in Russian, English, French and German) in a matching binding has 146 smaller color reproductions on 17 folding plates. Elephant folios (19 x 15 x 4.5 inches) housed together in a plain green board slipcase. Edition limited to 1750 copies.

About the Artist:
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was a pioneering German naturalist and scientific illustrator known for her detailed studies of insect metamorphosis. Later in her career, she was commissioned to create illustrations for the D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer (Amboina Curiosity Cabinet), a significant work on shells and marine life by Dutch naturalist Georg Everhard Rumphius, published posthumously. 

About the Author:
Georg Eberhard Rumphius (originally: Rumpf),1627-1702, was a German-born botanist employed by the Dutch East India Company in what is now eastern Indonesia, and is best known for his work, Herbarium Amboinense. 

Condition:
Appears to be in very good condition. No obvious flaws that I can find. A very well-preserved print, appears to have never much seen the light of day ~ Please peruse the detailed photos.

Text Page(s): This one comes with its original text pages, translated into English, French, German & Russian.

Size: 18" x 14" inches approximately.
 
Combined Shipping:
Yes!  Multiple prints can be combine into one Priority Mail 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. If you're assessed multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund any overage asap

Thanks for Visiting!

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. 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!