Adalbert Seitz - 1000 magnificent full colour lithographs from: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde - 1905-1954

No less than 1000 fine chromolithographed plates (some heightened with silver, gold and fluorescent blue), printed in 10-14 colours, published by Kernen Verlag, between 1904 and 1954, all in the same, large (folio) format.
This is a massive number of extremely beautiful plates (all as new!) made for the most ambitious work on the world's butterflies and moths ever produced, by far. Showing an incredibly spectacular variability in shapes and colours. We estimate around 40.000 butterflies are depicted on these 1000 plates. Including species from Australia and Oceania (Fauna Indo-Australica), Africa (Fauna Africana), Asia and Europe (Fauna Palaearctica), and North, Middle and South America (Fauna Americana).
Starting in 1904, the editor, Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz (1860-1938) planned to finish the whole work in 1912. This proved to be madness: publication finally stopped in 1954, and of several parts the text remained unfinished.
Meanwhile, Seitz and his successors had made thousands and thousands of images (surely more than 60,000 in total!) of butterflies and moths, for which the world's most important collections of butterflies were consulted including those of L. W. Rothschild of Tring, the British Museum in London, the Paris Natural History Museum, the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt, as well as collections in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia, South- and North- America, etc.
All specimens shown are named. Apart from a German edition, an English edition, and a much less complete French edition were published. The plates presented here are from the German or English edition. These editions are virtually identical. There are no duplicate plates present, all 1000 plates are different. An amazing collection indeed.

References: Catalogue British Museum (Natural History), p. 1895; Nissen ZBI, 3799N.