Antique Elephant Hand-Coloured Prints by Buffon, 1769, Set of 2

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Charming elephant pair, antique hand-coloured prints by buffon, 1769 this impressive matched pair of 18th-century elephant engravings, depicting the male … Read more Charming elephant pair, antique hand-coloured prints by buffon, 1769 this impressive matched pair of 18th-century elephant engravings, depicting the male and female asian elephant, comes from the rare dutch edition of buffon’s monumental natural history, published in amsterdam by j.h. Schneider in 1769. The plates, titled l’elephant mâle and l’elephant femelle, appear as plates i and ii in tome xi, and together form one of the most iconic mammal portrayals in the entire series. Each image was engraved after drawings by jacques de sève, the principal artist of buffon’s histoire naturelle, and then expertly hand-coloured, producing warm earthy tones and detailed modelling that brings the animals vividly to life. The engravings present the elephants in profile against a subtly rendered landscape featuring pagodas and decorative architectural structures, a typical enlightenment-era attempt to situate exotic animals within imagined eastern settings. The male elephant is shown with long curved tusks and a heavy, muscular body, while the female features the softer contours and smaller proportions characteristic of a cow elephant. Both plates retain their original plate marks, ample margins, and the distinctive clarity of 18th-century copperplate engraving, with fine parallel shading that defines the folds of the skin and the expressive movement of the trunks. The dutch edition by schneider is particularly sought after for its high-quality impressions and rich contemporary colouring. See less