The two cloured engravings below are by famed botanical artist Georg Ehret.
They are from a famed work known "Plantae Selectae"
The one titled "Papaya" has been colour printed and then hand finished
But there is a mystery about them for they are not quite like other examples.
At first sight they may look like any other example of Papaya or Cereus but a more thorough look indicates otherwise.
At the very least they are early states if not First states. This can be deduced by the fact that the engraver's name Joachin Haid is not present.
All other examples that I have seen either bound or images of disbound examples have stitching holes on the left hand where they have been bound.
All other examples that I have seen either bound or disbound examples have edges that are square, Neither of these has been trimmed square
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Later examples in particular of Papaya show areas of later engraving
The colouring methods are slightly different
The purple spines and stem of Cereus are more than just areas of applied colour. They have some microscopic particulates mixed in which is an effect that requires an eyeglass to see.
To the left of the top of the stem of Cereus can be seen small traces of light coloured shapes, suggesting to my eyes that consideration may have been given to adding some more plant details.
The engraved area around the open seed pod has been coloured a light grey / white but is uncoloured in later examples.
All of this leads me to question whether these as other examples were coloured by Haid or whether in fact they were actually coloured by Ehret and were the models from which Haid copied.
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