Butterflies: Catephia, Catocala (1863)

Title: Catephia, Catocala

Latin Name: Lepidoptera

Publisher: F. Berge (1811-1883)

Year: 1863

Origin: Stuttgart, Germany

Technique: Handcoloured lithography on paper.

Size (inc. mat): 37.8 x 33.5 cm.

Size image: 22 x 18.5 cm.

This is an original lithography from 1863, which (after it was printed in black and white) was coloured by hand in order to match the exact natural colours of the depicted species. Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Berge was born in 1811, and had an interest in butterflies from a very young age. Although a builder's assistant by profession, privately Berge was an avid collector and researcher of entomology and natural history. He would publish multiple publications about birds, beetles, butterflies, plants, shells and cacti.

Lithography was a technique of printing that was developed in the early 19th century. It replaced traditional techniques for illustration such as copper engraving, as it could print plates in larger numbers. Lithography at its early phase could not print full-colour depictions. Especially for natural historical prints, it was important that the animals were depicted in their original colours in order to be identified by the spectator. Prints for more luxurious publications were therefore printed in black and white and afterwards coloured by hand. This was a very time-consuming and meticulous process and it would make these publications more expensive to purchase. Lithographic printing (also described as planographic or flatbed printing) is a technique which involves a stone as a medium. With special lithographic crayon, a depiction (after a drawing) is drawn on the stone. After treating the stone, ink would only hold on the parts where the crayon had left its trace. After the application of ink, the stone would transfer the depiction on paper, resulting in a black and white print that could be coloured afterwards