Franz Michael Regenfuss – Shells, Plate IV from Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés, 1758 | Giclée Print

Two great scallops hold the vertical axis of this sheet: a scarlet one at the head, fluted and slightly frayed at the edge, and below it a broad orange one with its ribs drawn one by one. Around them the engraver has set a frilled murex, marbled clams, a spotted cone and two dark mussels, violet and near-black, so that the colour runs from red through orange to blue-black down the page. It was cut and coloured in Copenhagen in 1758 for Regenfuss's folio of shells, printed with a royal privilege that is named in the caption line at the bottom.

What this is — A giclée reproduction of a hand-coloured engraving, printed on fine art paper. It is not an original print, and it is not sold as one. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected.

Scale — On the 50 × 70 sheet the plate is printed at its original size, 28.9 × 42.3 cm. On the 40 × 50 sheet the same picture is reduced to 0.80×, 23.1 × 33.9 cm. Both are drawn from the 400 dpi scan of the Zurich copy, and both keep the narrow band of the old laid paper that surrounds the printed area.

The print — 200 gsm matte fine art paper, pigment inks, a white margin on all four sides, unframed, shipped rolled.

Where this comes from — Franz Michael Regenfuss (1712–1780), Auserlesne Schnecken, Muscheln und andre Schaalthiere / Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés, Copenhagen 1758, plate IV, hand-coloured engraving after Gabriel Müller, from the copy held by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. The museum file, the measurements, and what we are allowed to sell: the record for this sheet.

From the same series — Shell Plates — Regenfuss 1758: three sheets from the same folio, built to hang together.

Further reading — Why This Print Is Not Bigger.