Pair of Hand-coloured Botanical Engravings by Georg Wolfgang Knorr

A rare pair of hand-coloured botanical engravings by Georg Wolfgang Knorr published in Nuremberg, plate mark 280 x 215 mm on sheet 16 ¼” x 9 ½”. From Knorr’s “Thesaurus Rei Herbariae Hortensisque Universalis” (The kingdom of flowers with all its beauties). At the lower right is the title in Latin and the lower left in German. W. Knorr was a German engraver and naturalist and was apprenticed initially to his father’s wood turning business in Nuremburg, but by the age of 18 had become an engraver of copper plates for Leonhard Blanc, working with Martin Tyroff on the illustrations for Jacob Scheuchzer’s “Physica Sacra” (1731). This work and his acquaintance with J.A. Bauer, a mineralogist-correspondent of the Royal Society, quickened Knorr’s interest in natural history. Further stimulus was provided by the wealthy doctor and polymath Christoph Jakob Trew who owned a menagerie and natural history collection. Knorr published numerous engravings in books and single folios. They are said by the Smithsonian Institute to be amongst the “rarest of the rare” with original colouring and large images.