{"product_id":"antique-french-de-buffon-engraving-la-demoiselle-de-numidie","title":"Antique French de Buffon Bird Engraving, La Demoiselle de Numidie, Hand Colored, 18th Century","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeriod\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1770 to 1783, French\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9¼ x 11½ inches, framed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA hand colored copperplate engraving of the demoiselle crane, from Buffon's Histoire naturelle, drawn by Jacques de Sève and engraved by Jean Mansard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bird stands in profile on one leg at the edge of a plain, the long dark breast plumes hanging forward past the shoulder, the white ear tufts trailing back from the head. A walled town sits small on the horizon behind, which sets the scale of the bird against the landscape. The color is laid over the engraved line in thin translucent washes, so the etched hatching that models the plumage stays visible through it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe paper has warmed to ivory with scattered foxing through the margins. The frame is painted blue gray with a yellow ochre inner fillet, distressed to bare wood at the corners and along the rails. Sold as found.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHistorical Context\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNumidia was the Roman name for the territory of eastern Algeria, and the bird is still called the demoiselle crane in English after the French. Buffon's account came from birds kept in European menageries and from reports sent home by travelers, which is why the plates so often set an exotic species in a generic landscape with one detail, a palm or a distant tower, standing in for a place the artist had never seen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeorges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, ran the Jardin du Roi in Paris and gave the rest of his life to the Histoire naturelle, thirty-six volumes published between 1749 and his death in 1788, with eight more added afterward by his successors. He wrote it in French and aimed it at any educated reader, and the first edition sold out in six weeks and went on into English, German, Swedish, Italian and Russian. The nine volumes on birds were written with Guéneau de Montbeillard, and Jacques de Sève drew close to two thousand plates across the whole work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"foundresse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57209553649830,"sku":"FD-036-75","price":645.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0637\/7645\/6870\/files\/90AA87B4-653E-4930-A523-127C7D653E90.jpg?v=1788020312","url":"https:\/\/foundresse.com\/products\/antique-french-de-buffon-engraving-la-demoiselle-de-numidie","provider":"foundresse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}