18th C. Georg Wolfgang Knorr (1705-1761) Framed Seashell Bookplates, a Pair

Beautifully rendered, hand colored bookplates of sea life. A complementary pair frames in ornate gilt wood with linen matting.

The first plate is from Knorr’s “Delights for the Eyes and the Spirit, or a General Collection of the Different Species of Shells the the Sea Contains” This engraving is after the drawing of J.C. Keller and is engraved by Johann Adam Joninger, circa 1720 – 1760.

Georg Wolfgang Knorr was a German paleontologist, as well as a painter, draftsman, engraver, collector and art dealer. At age 18, he became a copperplate engraver for Leonhard Blanc, working with Martin Tyroff on the illustrations for Jacob Scheuchzer’s Physica Sacra (1731). Later he engraved portraits, landscapes, geological formations, and animal studies after Dürer and the Kilian family. In the second half of the 18th century, Nuremberg overtook Augsburg as the center of production for fine natural history books in Germany. There, Knorr published scientific works distinguished by their beautiful hand-colored plates. His works include two posthumous productions: Deliciae Naturae Selectae Oder Auserlefenes Naturalien Cabinet (1766-67), and Les Délices Des Yeux et de L’espirit, ou Collection Generale des Differentes Espèces de Coquillages (1764-73).

The second plate is numbered Tab XVIII, artist unknown.