Mountain Maple. Acer montanum Candidum, Weinmann antique print c1740

by Weinmann, Johann Wilhelm

18th century botanical engraving of a Maple tree.

Original copperplate engraving by Johann-Jacob Haid (1704-1767), with etched outline and mezzotint colour-printed interior (and hand-finished), this is one of the earliest examples of colour-printing with watercolour from a single plate - published from 1737 to 1745 for Phytanthoza Iconographia, a survey of thousands of native and foreign plants, by Regensburg apothecary Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741).

Weinmann created a botanical garden in Regensburg, published the Catalogus Alphabetico ordine exhibens Pharmaca (Alphabetical Pharmaceutical Catalogue) in 1723, and contributed botanical notes as 'Observationes und Anmerkungen' in the Breslauer Sammlungen.  His grandest achievement was his Phytanthoza Iconographia, a florilegium with more than 1,000 engravings of several thousand plants and trees. Weinmann employed a number of capable illustrators, including Georg Dionysus Ehret (1708-1770).

This rare 18th century engraving is in fine condition. Page size: 385 x 240mm (15.25 x 9.5 inches).