Palma coccifera triangula, Calappa, Coccus-N?ssba?m.

COCONUT

Folio (38.9 x 23.1 cm the sheet; 33.1 x 21.2.cm the platemark), (1) copperplate engraving numbered 782 in the plate, in color 'mock mezzotint' with contemporary handcolor. Excellent.

Engraving of the coconut plant from Johann Wilhelm Weinmann's Phytanthoza Iconographia, "the first botanical book to use color printed mezzotint successfully" (Hunt). Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741) was a German botanist and apothecary in Regensburg, and his monumental series represents the most innovative achievement in botanical illustration of its time. "The mezzotint process used here had been invented by Johann Teyler in the Netherlands around 1688. As practiced there by Bartholomaus Seuter (1678-1754) and Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767), it was really a combination of etching and mezzotint, which made possible delicate lines and a very fine grain. The addition of hand-tinting brought about unusual and subtle effects" (Hunt).

* Dunthorne 327; Hunt 494; Nissen 2126; Sitwell, Great Flower Books, 1700-1900, p. 80.