Though it is the pineapple that is most prominent, it is the assortment of creatures that flutter around, climb or emerge from its leaves that are the principal attraction of this coloured plate, right.
It is one of 72 counterproof engraved plates in contemporary colour of South American insects that illustrate a 1726, Den Haag edition of Maria Sybylla Merian’s Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium. In a fine red morocco gilt binding bearing the arms of the Bourbon-Condé family, it sold for a premium-inclusive SwFr110,100 (£90,785) as part of a March 30-April 1 series of sales at Koller (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) of Zurich.
As reported in ATG No 2538, a 1719, ‘first complete’ edition of Merian’s …Insectorum Surinamensium sold for sold for £40,000 in the UK, at Dominic Winter of Gloucestershire on March 2 (plus 20% buyer’s premium).