Wien, Pichler's Witwe & Sohn, ca. 1912. Two charts in two. Very large broadsides (140 x 130 cm each). Each single sheet lithographed on two half-sheets, combined into one. Printed in chromolithography on one side.

Two very rare pictorial wall charts depicting the live history and anatomy of the frog. Paul Pfurtscheller (1855-1927) was an Austrian zoologist and natural history artist who produced a series of Zoologischen Wandtafeln (zoological teaching charts, or pull-down charts, if not mounted on cardboard) from 1902 onwards. Such charts were initially used only in German-speaking countries, but their use soon became common elsewhere. From 1877 onwards, Pfurtscheller was a member of the Zoological and Botanical Society of Vienna. He created the wall charts to illustrate his teaching lessons, and these were later used by the University Zoological Institute and highly regarded by eminent zoologists. Pfurtscheller completed 38 plates, of some 70 planned. A 39th, which showed a dissection of the Oriental cockroach, was halted by his death, but was later completed. The charts were originally published by A. Pichler's Witwe & Sohn and Buchhandlung Lehrmittelanstalt (as are these two copy), a bookstore specialising in educational literature and teaching aids in Vienna and Leipzig. Sold individually, they were often varnished, resulting in a yellowish appearance with ageing. This set, however, is not varnished, as published, and not yellowed. The first five plates went on sale in 1902. About 1930, the rights were purchased by the The Hague based publisher Martinus Nijhoff, which firm, however, used the simpler offset printing instead of chromolithography. This copy is from the original, better, more richly coloured chromolithographed edition. Some light creasing, a few short tears, as usual, but generally in very good - i.e., much better than average - condition. Nissen ZBI, 3152.