Papillons d'Europe, peints d'apres nature par M. Ernst gravés et coloriés sous sa direction.

8 ff. (30,5 x 24,0 cm).

In new marbled portfolio.

Very rare, never distributed supplement pl. to the original work. 8 beautifully hand-coloured engr., numbered 1-5, 7-9 portraying 84 figures, all engraved by A. Schmidt and painted by the German natural history illustrator Maria Eleonora Hochecker (1761-1834). Between 1779 and 1793 Ernst and Engramelle published 8 vol. on the "Papillons d'Europe". In 1788 the publishers had announced their intention of issuing another vol. However, due to the tumultuous political situation in Europe, it is unlikely this project was completed. Just after World War I, R. Homberg discovered some butterfly plates in the window of a second-hand bookstore. After research, these turned out to be the missing pl. of vol. 9 which was never completed or distributed to subscribers who were for the most part guillotined or had emigrated. Figures are numbered from 169 to 280. Of plate 6 - not seen by Homberg and not recorded in any bibliography - only a single copy, probably a proof copy, is known. An index of the pl. has been added in photocopy.
Ref. Cp. Nissen (ZBI) 1300. - R. Homberg, "Some unknown plates in Ernst and Engramelle's Papillons d'Europe peints d'après nature", Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1953 vol. 3 (1): 28-33.