Porte-Feuille des Enfans, Bilderbuch für Kinder: Volumes I to VI

Superb set of the first six volumes (of 12) of Friedrich Bertuch's famous Picture-book for Children, an illustrated encyclopedia for children.

Volumes 1 and 2 in half leather, volumes 3 to 6 in original paper wraps.

With all 600 hand-coloured copperplates in near fine condition with superb hand colour.

Text in German and French.

The Picture-Book was published in 12 volumes from 1790 to 1843 and eventually included 1,185 handcoloured copperplates. Bertuch wished to reproduce the magic of discovery, and mixed engravings of plants, animals, shells, minerals, volcanoes and technical inventions in a utopian chaos, so that a child could encounter afresh the wonders of the natural world at the turn of every page.

Although unsigned, the copperplates were overseen by Georg Melchior Kraus and J.H. Lips, after drawings by Th. Götz, C. Graf, C. Horny, Fr. Kaiser, and W. Waitz, and botanicals by Henriette and Conrad Westermayr, F. Götz and C. Ermer.

With 118 botanical plates, 76 ornithology, 74 quadrupeds, 53 entomology, 41 ichthyology, 26 amphibia, 22 antiquities, 18 roses, 13 molluscs, 11 costumes and 135 miscellaneous (including architecture, landscapes, microscopy, travel, science), etc.

Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch (1747-1822) 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. His son Carl Bertuch (1777-1815) became a writer and journalist and wrote and edited Volume 6 in this set.

Volumes 1 and 2 in tan leather, spines with five raised bands, red and blue leather gilt labels, marbled boards in very good condition. Volumes 3 to 6 in original pink paper wraps in pristine condition, in pink paper portfolios with ties, blue labels with handwritten titles on front. All six volumes housed in three yellow board cases with red and blue gilt labels.

A superb set in near fine condition.