Coastal/Seashore Vintage Print

Description

This beautiful and rare 1742 hand-colored copperplate engraving of shells is by Niccolo Gualtieri - 1688-1744. Gualtieri was born in … more This beautiful and rare 1742 hand-colored copperplate engraving of shells is by Niccolo Gualtieri - 1688-1744. Gualtieri was born in 1688 in Florence and at the age of 20 he went to the University of Pisa to study philosophy and medicine. He returned to Florence to practice medicine and later became physician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. A true renaissance man - Gualtieri wrote poetry, studied botany and malacology and conchology. In 1731 he began to assemble a private collection of shells which he catalogued in 1742 as "Index Testarum Conchyliorium, Quae Adservantur in Museo Nicolai Gualtieri - "List of Shells of shellfish which are preserved in the museum of Niccolo Gualtieri". The engravings were done by Guiseppe Menabuoni and Antonio Pazzi and were printed in Florence in 1742. These are stunning and in excellent condition.

I purchased these engravings in Florence from Giovanni Baccani, owner of The Blue Door in the Borgo Ognissanti. Giovanni made the beautiful black and gold French mat that comes with each engraving. less