1816 Rhinoceros, Imp. folio 42.5 cm, stone lithograph incunabula, hand colour

Landmark stone lithograph of large size and issued in the ‘Incunabula’ period of stone lithography prior to 1820.

Height: 17.33 in. (44 cm)Width: 13.59 in. (34.5 cm)

Print on fine Ziegler paper.

The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), also called the Indian rhino, greater one-horned rhinoceros or great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros species native to the Indian subcontinent. Indian rhinos once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but excessive hunting and agricultural development reduced its range drastically to 11 sites in northern India and southern Nepal. In the early 1990s, between 1,870 and 1,895 Indian rhinos were estimated to have been alive.

Extremely rare. Hand colored stone lithograph by Carl Joseph Brodtmann from his extremely rare series: Naturhistorische Bilder Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche Lindau, Brodtmann [1816]. Reference Winkler 105. Brodtmann is considered a pioneer in the art of lithography employing techniques for "texture" that are quite similar to that of an aquatint. He produced his lithographs in the post-Linnaean 'Age of Enlightenment’ as books illustrations and sets of natural history prints, as “Naturhistorische Bilder Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche”, with the more expensive sets being hand colored. Natural history specimens were depicted and sold in these hand-coloured sets for the use of biologists and the aristocracy, the latter being not only great patrons of the arts and sciences, but including many who were actively interested in fauna and flora.

Condition: Light vertical central crease.