I would contact someone in the British Natural History Museum in London as their library collections, and particularly books dealing with butterflies and moths, are likely the most comprehensive in the world. You might try Ian Kitching or Thomas Simmonsen - both knowledgeable, working Lepidopterists.

I would contact someone in the British Natural History Museum in London as their library collections, and particularly books dealing with butterflies and moths, are likely the most comprehensive in the world. You might try Ian Kitching or Thomas Simmonsen - both knowledgeable, working Lepidopterists.

I suggest you enquire with Dick Vane-Wright (Nat. Hist. Mus. London) and/or Sonja Drimmer (Columbia University, Dept. of Art History & Archaeology, New York). I'm confident they'll be able to advise you.

Hi Luis, Nice topic! I am curious about this technique to color the drawings (what kind of method they used to fix the scales on papers sheet or are they mixed with some ink?). Feel free to send me a short explanation about that by mail

Dear Luis, i would suggest you to contact Mr.Peter Smetacek who is an authority in Butterflies and Moths in India. You can contact him via Facebook or Google his name and you will get his email id. Hope it proves to be fruitful enough.. Gd day.

According to the Aurelian Bookshop A.M.C. = Alan Cole

http://www.aurelianbooks.com/book.php?id=1057

The Library of the Netherlands Entomological Society holds a copy of Denton's

work and we would be very interested to know more about the subject.

Please keep us posted of your findings

"A Guide to Nature-Printing. Butterflies and Moths"

is available online at:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=OXVU1&docId=oxfaleph014628285

George Edwards "A Receipt for taking the Figures of Butterflies on thin Gummed Paper " is available here:

http://books.google.nl/books?id=hpM5AAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA117&ots=vrQQJImMKC&dq=A%20Receipt%20for%20taking%20the%20Figures%20of%20Butterflies%20on%20thin%20Gummed%20Paper&pg=PA117#v=onepage&q=A%20Receipt%20for%20taking%20the%20Figures%20of%20Butterflies%20on%20thin%20Gummed%20Paper&f=true

Dear all, thank you so much for your suggestions. In fact there is very few publications on the subject and the known works using the technique are also rare. Most of the known existing works are from the late nineteenth century / twentieth century, but the copy that we have in Lisbon is from the late eighteenth century (circa 1780-90). Besides Edwards reference in 1770, I don't know of any other older reference than this case. Also, the author of the book, Frei Mariano da Conceição Veloso (the same author of Flora Fluminensis), clearly states in his letter to the Portuguese crown at the time he offers the book that: "[...] and finally by one of butterflies printed by the color starch that cover the membranes of its wings, a work so rare and estimable that the offerer has no news that any other would exist in the European Royal Museuns [...].". I'm inclined to believe that this book may represent one of the oldest examples of the technique that survives to the present day. Although, given the uncertainity, I've decided to ask all of you about it. Hopefully we will deepen the existing knowledge about this technique and learn a little more about eighteenth century natural history. I will keep you all posted of any news that I may have.

There are some Dutch seventeenth century painters who used butterfly wings in their oil paintings, but the wings deteriorated over the years so now there are only blank areas on the canvas. One such artist was Otto Marseus van Schrieck, but Melchior de Hondecoeter possibly did this too. Check also Maria Sybilla Merian, she is an eighteenth century painter of insects and other small creatures, she may have done so too..

You can check this out:

Orousset, Jean (2008) - Un art oublié : la lépidochromie. L'Entomologiste, 64 (1) : 47-58.

Good luck,

Fd

Merci François!

Do you have it in pdf? I can't find it on the web.

Although the "wax-cum-gum" technique claimed to have been pioneered by L.G.O. Waterhouse for the plates of his Butterflies of Ceylon (where it is meticulously described) is more famous and much later (1949) than the examples mentioned in this interesting post, it may still be worth a mention in this context, since the technique so faithfully leaves the upperside scale surface of the wings intact, even faithfully preserving androconia, although the bodies used were artificial. I have also seen the originals for the plates, still in private hands.

sorry rather, L.G.O. Woodhouse for The Butterfly Fauna of Ceylon

Although I think there is probaply no need to mention this here, Denton's work is available in the BHL

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/45790#page/11/mode/1up

You should contact Lepidopterists organizations, museums, entomology departments, etc. - someone in one of these places is like to know the answer.

The Academy recently acquired the two-volume book of butterfly and moth wing-prints published in Japan by the Nawa Entomological Laboratory about a hundred years ago; contact me if you'd like to know more.

I would like to know more about the two- volume book of butterfly and moth wing prints published by Nawa Entomological Lab. Are you going to digitize it?

The Gifu Prefectural Library has digitized its copy. You can see it at

http://www.library.pref.gifu.lg.jp/dc/butterflies/butterflies1.htm

Hello!

I am doing research in art history about the technique, who was probably first used by Otto Marseus van Schrieck, as Joy Kearney suggested it (I am not sure about Merian, though)

I would be happy to know which publication by Frei Mariano Veloso in Lisbon do you talk about? Is there any PDF of this publication with the butterflies?

Many thanks!

All the best,

V:E