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[Albert Seba] Nicolass Struyck (1686-1769).
Verschyden, Uyt-lansche Insecten, geteekent na het Cabinet van d'Hn. Seba, J. ten Kate, &c., versamelt door N. Struyck, junior, 1719. [Amsterdam:] 1719. 10 original drawings in bodycolour and grey wash (447 x 280mm).on contemporary black- and gold-ruled grey card mounts (552 x 390mm), consisting of a title-page with elaborate border incorporating fruit and butterflies, and drawings on 9 sheets of butterflies (4), crickets, moths, horned beetles (2), and dragonflies. (Very light spotting, light rubbing to two sheets.)
THE ONLY EXTANT ORIGINAL DRAWINGS FROM THE RENOWNED WUNDERKAMMER OF ALBERTUS SEBA. Seba (1665-1736), an Amsterdam apothecary, formed two of the greatest and most famous natural history cabinets of the 18th century. After the first was bought by the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, in 1717 for 15,000 Dutch gilders, Seba immediately began forming an even more extensive cabinet. He was able to take advantage of Amsterdam's pre-eminent position in overseas trade to collect exotic specimens (he counted the director of the West India company as a close friend) and had numerous foreign contacts in Ceylon, Virginia, Arabia, Greenland, and elsewhere. He was also a leading figure in the international scientific community, opening his cabinet to scholars and scientists and corresponding with men such as Hans Sloane, J.J. Scheuchzer, L. Marsigli, and, most closely, with Linneaus.
Seba published his second cabinet beginning in 1734 as Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri descriptio. Only two volumes were completed before his death in 1736, and posthumous publication of the final two volumes was funded, ironically, by the sale of the cabinet at auction in April 1752. While the second cabinet is documented in the Thesaurus and some specimens from both cabinets survive, principally in St. Petersburg and Paris, there is no pictorial record of the first cabinet, nor are any original drawings of the second cabinet known. The present drawings appear to be the sole survivors of a long-lost extensive pictorial record of specimens in Seba's and others' natural history cabinets. In 1862 T.O. Weigel offered an album corresponding exactly with the title-page here for 300 Thlr. in his catalogue XIII (cited by Hagen, p.394). It is described as six folio volumes containing 271 original drawings of insects and butterflies, 7 of birds, 6 of shells and 14 of plants, each carefully mounted, creating a 'véritable chef d'oeuvre fait par un vrai artiste et exécuté d'un main de maitre'. UNTIL THE RECENT EMERGENCE OF THE PRESENT 9 DRAWINGS, THESE ALBUMS HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY LOST FROM VIEW so that even Engel, Seba's dedicated biographer, could write only that 'we have not found it anywhere, and it must have been a collection of drawings never printed.' ('The Life of Albert Seba', Svenska Linné-Sällskapets Arsskrift, XX, 1937, pp.75-100).
The undertaking of such an elaborate project as the creation of these lost six albums of drawings, 'dessinés à la plume et peints d'après nature', can only have been done for a wealthy patron interested in science and nature. It would have been a long-term commission, perhaps begun well in advance of the 1719 date on the title-page. Since the drawings offered here do not appear in the Thesaurus, they may represent specimens in Seba's first cabinet before their removal to Russia in 1717. Similarly, they may be the only witness to the cabinet of J. ten Kate, Seba's contemporary, whose collection Struyck also used.
Cf. H. Engel, op.cit., and Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List of Dutch Zoological Cabinets and Menageries, ed. by P. Smit, no. 1485; L.B. Holthuis, 'Albertus Seba's Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri', Zoologische Mededelingen, 43, 1969, pp.239-252; M. Boesman, 'The vicissitudes and dispersal of Albertus Seba's zoological specimens', idem., 44, 1970, pp. 177-207; Hagen, Bibliotheca Entomologica II, p.394; Horn-Schenkling, Index litteraturae entomologicae, 1928-29, correcting Hagen's date to 1719. (10)
Verschyden, Uyt-lansche Insecten, geteekent na het Cabinet van d'Hn. Seba, J. ten Kate, &c., versamelt door N. Struyck, junior, 1719. [Amsterdam:] 1719. 10 original drawings in bodycolour and grey wash (447 x 280mm).on contemporary black- and gold-ruled grey card mounts (552 x 390mm), consisting of a title-page with elaborate border incorporating fruit and butterflies, and drawings on 9 sheets of butterflies (4), crickets, moths, horned beetles (2), and dragonflies. (Very light spotting, light rubbing to two sheets.)
THE ONLY EXTANT ORIGINAL DRAWINGS FROM THE RENOWNED WUNDERKAMMER OF ALBERTUS SEBA. Seba (1665-1736), an Amsterdam apothecary, formed two of the greatest and most famous natural history cabinets of the 18th century. After the first was bought by the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, in 1717 for 15,000 Dutch gilders, Seba immediately began forming an even more extensive cabinet. He was able to take advantage of Amsterdam's pre-eminent position in overseas trade to collect exotic specimens (he counted the director of the West India company as a close friend) and had numerous foreign contacts in Ceylon, Virginia, Arabia, Greenland, and elsewhere. He was also a leading figure in the international scientific community, opening his cabinet to scholars and scientists and corresponding with men such as Hans Sloane, J.J. Scheuchzer, L. Marsigli, and, most closely, with Linneaus.
Seba published his second cabinet beginning in 1734 as Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri descriptio. Only two volumes were completed before his death in 1736, and posthumous publication of the final two volumes was funded, ironically, by the sale of the cabinet at auction in April 1752. While the second cabinet is documented in the Thesaurus and some specimens from both cabinets survive, principally in St. Petersburg and Paris, there is no pictorial record of the first cabinet, nor are any original drawings of the second cabinet known. The present drawings appear to be the sole survivors of a long-lost extensive pictorial record of specimens in Seba's and others' natural history cabinets. In 1862 T.O. Weigel offered an album corresponding exactly with the title-page here for 300 Thlr. in his catalogue XIII (cited by Hagen, p.394). It is described as six folio volumes containing 271 original drawings of insects and butterflies, 7 of birds, 6 of shells and 14 of plants, each carefully mounted, creating a 'véritable chef d'oeuvre fait par un vrai artiste et exécuté d'un main de maitre'. UNTIL THE RECENT EMERGENCE OF THE PRESENT 9 DRAWINGS, THESE ALBUMS HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY LOST FROM VIEW so that even Engel, Seba's dedicated biographer, could write only that 'we have not found it anywhere, and it must have been a collection of drawings never printed.' ('The Life of Albert Seba', Svenska Linné-Sällskapets Arsskrift, XX, 1937, pp.75-100).
The undertaking of such an elaborate project as the creation of these lost six albums of drawings, 'dessinés à la plume et peints d'après nature', can only have been done for a wealthy patron interested in science and nature. It would have been a long-term commission, perhaps begun well in advance of the 1719 date on the title-page. Since the drawings offered here do not appear in the Thesaurus, they may represent specimens in Seba's first cabinet before their removal to Russia in 1717. Similarly, they may be the only witness to the cabinet of J. ten Kate, Seba's contemporary, whose collection Struyck also used.
Cf. H. Engel, op.cit., and Hendrik Engel's Alphabetical List of Dutch Zoological Cabinets and Menageries, ed. by P. Smit, no. 1485; L.B. Holthuis, 'Albertus Seba's Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri', Zoologische Mededelingen, 43, 1969, pp.239-252; M. Boesman, 'The vicissitudes and dispersal of Albertus Seba's zoological specimens', idem., 44, 1970, pp. 177-207; Hagen, Bibliotheca Entomologica II, p.394; Horn-Schenkling, Index litteraturae entomologicae, 1928-29, correcting Hagen's date to 1719. (10)
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