FERUSSAC - MARINE LIFE PL.1 : THE ARGONAUT OCTOPUS print (Argonauta Argo)) 1834 -1835

This gorgeous and extremely rare folio lithograph, with beautiful original hand colouring of an argonaut octopus, is from the first part André Étienne d'Audebert de Férussac and A. D'Orbigny's "Histoire naturelle des Céphalopodes Acétabulifères vivants et fossiles."  Published by Lacour in Paris from 1834 – 1835.

The exceptional plates displayed in "Histoire naturelle des Céphalopodes" were drawn by some of the finest French artists of the period, including J.G. Prêtre, A. Prévosts, Oudart and Werner.

Férussac, a French naturalist, was born in 1786, and began this publication in 1822, but he died while the work was still in progress and it was completed by Alcide d’Orbigny, also a French naturalist, in 1848.