A wonderful, unique album, with beautifully arranged cut-out butterflies in fantastic colours on exceptionally large sheets. One of the most exciting pieces of natural history “scissor art”, or Scherenschnitte, that we have ever seen. This album consists of folded sheets glued back-to-back à la colle, i.e., without stitching. A very high-level decorative object, in the taste of cabinets of curiosities, and probably manufactured in French-speaking Switzerland (Romandy) or Geneva. The style of composition, the cover, and the paper used allow dating the whole to the late 18th century to the early 19th century. The cover is in the style of that period, with vermilion marbled paper, while the borders - dense floral motifs, stylized birds, in blue, white, and green - are typical of Swiss or Alsatian/Lorraine papers from this period. The fine wove paper (papier vélin) used was quite common at the turn of the 18th century. Both French mills (Rhône-Alpes, Dauphiné, Isère) and Swiss romand mills produced vellum in large quantities, often with simple watermarks such as a St Jacques scallop, which is present in the leaves of this album. The fine cut-out borders - white silhouettes on navy blue background - display floral motifs: leaves, berries, bunches of grapes, perched birds, etc. They draw strongly from French or Swiss romand rococo and neoclassical styles of the period. The lettering “ENTOMOLOGIE” in a green arc and “LES LÉPIDOPTÈRES” is hand-painted and hand-cut, with sophisticated floral ornaments. The butterflies on the 13 main plates are cut from coloured paper, and layered for a subtle three-dimensional effect. A superb example of Scherenschnitte, executed with near-perfect care. Several butterfly families can be identified: uranids, saturnids, sphingids… The vivid colours - blue, green, red, yellow, metallic silver, and gold - and careful illustration of fine antennae and eye spots, evoke natural history illustrations of the time, such as those in Cramer's Papillons Exotiques. Two plates, being very rare examples of lepidochromy, conclude the album. These two plates form a true artistic and scientific hybrid, blending popular art and natural preservation. They employ lepidochromy, or “wing-printing”, a technique for preserving real wings typical of the late 18th to early 19th century. This technique was developed in particular to fix iridescent colours and prevent fading: fresh wings are pressed onto gummed paper to transfer the coloured scales, creating a natural, indelible impression. This method is, as stated in contemporary treatises “truer than painting” as it captures iridescences without alteration. Lepidochromy is often first attributed to Otto Marseus van Schrieck (1619/20-1678), a Dutch painter and naturalist of the Dutch Golden Age. He developed this method around 1650 for his undergrowth paintings, by pressing wing scales directly onto the canvas for a realistic and conservative effect - the earliest known use, well before more scientific entomological applications. read more