Porte-Feuille des Enfans, Bilderbuch fur Kinder: Volume IV

Volume 4 only of Friedrich Bertuch's famous Picture-Book for Children, an illustrated encyclopedia for children.

With 100 hand-coloured copperplates. Explanatory text in German and French.

The Picture-Book was published in 12 volumes from 1790 to 1843 and eventually included 1,185 handcoloured copperplates. Bertuch wished to reproduce the magic of discovery, and mixed engravings of plants, animals, shells, minerals, volcanoes and technical inventions in a utopian chaos, so that a child could encounter afresh the wonders of the natural world at the turn of every page.

Although unsigned, the copperplates were overseen by Georg Melchior Kraus and J.H. Lips, after drawings by Th. Götz, C. Graf, C. Horny, Fr. Kaiser, and W. Waitz, and botanicals by Henriette and Conrad Westermayr, F. Götz and C. Ermer.

With roses 1-8, botanicals 75-90, fish 28-39, birds 47-65, animals 65-68, including whales, elephants, and monkeys, insects 22-3, shells, corals, amphibians, numerous landscape views, air balloons and telegraphs, Roman charioteers and naval spectacles, etc.

Half green leather slightly chipped, red and purple leather labels on spine, marble boards scuffed, a few scattered spots to text, copperplates with fine hand-colour, mostly clean and bright, a few with slight offsetting.