Zonen-Bilder. Nach Aquarellen von Heinrich Leutemann.

Mit erklärenden Schilderungen für die Jugend von Hermann Wagner. Stuttgart : K. Thienemann’s Verlag (Jul. Hoffmann), [1867]. First edition. Oblong quarto (230 x 290 mm), publisher’s cloth-backed pictorial papered boards (superb), pp. [4], 40 (text in German in Fraktur), plus [20] magnificent chromolithographic plates of animals from different regions around the globe; pristine throughout.

An exceptional example of Leutemann’s beautiful natural history colour-plate book for children.

The German commercial artist Heinrich Leutemann (1824-1905) produced illustrations for numerous pedagogical books on the animal kingdom and ethnography, which were translated into many languages. The present work contains two plates illustrating animals of Central Europe; one each for Southern Europe (The Alps), Northern Europe (Lithuania), Northern Asia (Siberia), and Central Asia (Tibet); two for South Asia (Nearer and Further India); one each for the Sunda Islands (Sumatra), North Africa (the Sahara), East Africa (Nubia), and Central Africa (Sudan); two for Southern Africa (Kaffernland and Cape of Good Hope); two for North America (both northern Canada); three for South America (The Guianas, Brazil and Peru); and one for Australia (Neuholland).

The Australian plate is accompanied by two pages of explanatory text. Its unlikely central motif is a group of astonished-looking Aboriginal hunters being surprised by two kangaroos springing over the rocks above them. In the foreground are depicted a lyrebird, emu, black swan and platypus; in the background at left are two dingoes, while the vegetation includes Xanthorrhoea australis and native grasses.

Trove locates only the SLNSW copy in Australian libraries.