MERIAN, Maria Sibylla. Maria Sibylla Merian. Leningrad Watercolors. Two volumes. Edited by Ernst and Helga Ullmann. Text volume with 146 colour illustrations, all with descriptions. Plate volume with 50 facsimile reproductions in colour. Loose as issued, with descriptions in English, French, German and Russian. Large Folios, text bound in half vellum, plate volume in vellum backed portfolio with green marbled paper over boards in a cloth slipcase. New York: Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich, 1974.

First Edition, limited to 1750 copies. This deluxe edition reproduces for the first and only time the original Merian watercolours collected by Tsar Peter the Great and now reside at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) journeyed with her daughter Dorothea in 1699 to Surinam in South America, where they remained for two years during which time she executed a number of these breath-taking watercolours. Merian became one of the most celebrated woman artists of her time; her drawings of flowers, butterflies and various insects practically defined the genre and remain without equal.

Each of the superb colourplates in this facsimile is described in detail, with size, medium, pressmarks, and a description of the contents. A very special production with impresssive colour lithographic facsimilies of her original flower and natural history watercolours. As new.