Background:

These beautiful hand-colored engraved prints are selected from the Moths and Sphinxes volume of Sir William Jardine's Naturalist's Library.

Comprised of 40 volumes, The Library was published by Sir William Jardine in the 1830s and 1840s.  The volumes featured over 1300 beautiful illustrations including mammals, birds, fish and insects.  An interesting aspect of each print is that only the subject was hand-colored leaving the background illustration as the original black engraving.