The Surinam Album - one of 20 lettered copies. Cet article n’est pas disponible.The Surinam Album - one of 20 lettered copies

Hardcover. Fine condition. Issued in a limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies, of which this example is lettered 'J' as part of 20 additional lettered copies 'not for sale'. Elephant folio facsimile volume with accompanying small quarto commentary volume, together with three fine-art prints selected from The Surinam Album, all housed in the publisher’s clamshell box. The elephant folio is quarter bound in leather, with gilt and silver-foil blocking to the spine and a decorative gilt and silver illustration to the upper board. It contains 91 superb facsimile reproductions of Maria Sibylla Merian’s original watercolours. The volume is in fine condition. The commentary volume by Julie Harvey includes a biographical study of Merian alongside detailed commentary on the plates. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator, renowned for her pioneering work on insect metamorphosis. At the age of 52 she travelled to Suriname, spending two years documenting its flora and fauna, much of which had not previously been scientifically recorded. This work resulted in 91 watercolour plates, the first sixty later published as engravings in Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. The watercolours reproduced in this facsimile are taken from the British Museum’s collection, originally assembled by Sir Hans Sloane, and are presented in the same sequence as the original engravings.…