An original antique engraving published c 1820 by Friedrich Justin Betruch.
It featured in his collection "Bilderbuch fur Kinder", and educational series of books in the manner of an encylopedia or gazteer of knowledge. This plate has been hand coloured.
Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch was a German publisher and patron of the arts. He co-founded the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776. He was the father of the writer and journalist Karl Bertuch.
Between 1790 and 1830 Betruch printed the "Bilderbuch für Kinder" which appeared in 12 volumes. An educational work, it appeared in monthly instalments and aimed to "spread the knowledge of the epochs out before children" with 1185 pages and 6000 illustrations.
Translations, medical works – culture in its widest sense – was made accessible for a wide public via Bertuch's work. Goethe's classical work on the Iphigenia works and textual and visual sketches of a "newly-invented English washing machine" were both published by him.
