SEBA - SQUIRREL FISH, SEA BREAM, THREADFIN, STRIPED SWEETLIPS, SNAPPER tropical fish print - extremely rare original hand colouring

This extremely rare double page folio engraving - with original hand colouring of tropical fish from the Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific - is from Albertus Seba’s third volume of Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri, published in Amsterdam by J. Weststen, William Smith, & Jansson-Waesburg between 1734 and 1769. 

“A volume valuable for its drawings of foreign fishes, superior to all others at that time…”   (Pietsch, Cuvier - Historical Portrait of the Progress of Ichthyology 1995)

Albertus Seba (1665 – 1736) was a wealthy pharmacist based in Amsterdam who over the years amassed an amazing array of exotic plants, corals, birds, fish, insects and animals from around the world. This extraordinary collection was known as his “Cabinet of Natural Curiosities” and his Thesaurus, based on this collection, remains one of the most prized natural history books of all time.  

Of the 449 illustrated plates only 13 are of fish.

These extremely rare Seba copperplate engravings are both aesthetically appealing and highly desirable.  

(Ref: Müsch, Rust, & Willmann, Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, p. 29, 31; Pietsch,1995, p.99, 107; Dean, Bibl.of Fishes 1972, vol.3 p. 315)