Bees in Spring Journal — Brehm & Taschenberg 1877

Between 1876 and 1879, Alfred Edmund Brehm published the second edition of Brehms Tierleben — Brehm's Animal Life — the zoological encyclopedia that taught a generation of Europeans what animals actually looked like. Its chromolithographic plates, produced at the height of the art form, combined scientific precision with visual beauty that had never before been achieved in a popular natural history publication. Volume 9, with text by entomologist Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg, documented the insect world at its most vivid.

The front cover reproduces Plate 07 from Brehms Tierleben Volume 9 (1877) — 'Frühleben der Insektenwelt' (Spring in the Insect World) — honey bees and other insects extracting nectar from pussy willow branches (Salix) in a luminous spring landscape, rendered in the multi-colour chromolithographic technique that made Brehm's illustrations the standard reference for a generation of European naturalists. The back cover presents 'Bienentraube, Schwarm' (Bee Cluster, Swarm) from the same series — a dense living cluster of bees hanging from a tree branch, a man and a woman in period clothing observing the swarm with quiet attention, traditional beehives visible in the background, science and Victorian rural life united in one luminous chromolithographic scene.

Product Details

• Format: 5.75 × 8 in (14.6 × 20.3 cm)
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets)
• Perforated pages — tear out cleanly without damaging the binding
• Paper weight: 90 gsm, suitable for fountain pens and pencils
• Hardcover with matte finish, casewrap sewn binding
• Weight: 400 g (14.1 oz)

Perfect For

• Victorian natural history collectors and entomology enthusiasts
• Bee lovers, beekeepers, and admirers of pollinator science
• Lovers of Brehms Tierleben and 19th-century zoological chromolithography
• Those drawn to spring landscapes, pastoral Victorian scenes, and the intimate world of the apiary
• Students and researchers of Victorian natural history and the history of scientific illustration
• Thoughtful gifts for naturalists, gardeners, and lovers of rare illustrated books

Read more: Brehms Tierleben: The Encyclopedia That Taught Europe to See Animals