Customer Reviews

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Beautiful book...I'd been waiting for a more palatable ($) edition of this book for quite awhile and was happily surprised at the quality.

The old prints are just beautiful. Before photographs, books like these had hand painted reproductions of the animals. The detail is amazing. One can only imagine how long it must have taken to prepare these works.And collect the specimens.Check out the 7 headed hydra! And cheers to Taschen for another beautiful art book.

snakes, bugs, plants, birds and all manner of living creatures. It is really an overwhelming collection. Worth getting a larger coffee table.

I'm not a biologist or scientist of any kind. But I am a fan of Taschen's publications and admire his goal of publishing high-quality photo/art books at reasonable prices. I happened to come across this book while browsing in the bookshop, was attracted by the Taschen name on the cover, took a peek inside and bought it on the spot. It was only afterwards that I discovered the history and historical significance of this collection. It's a beautiful book, filled with brilliantly colored illustrations of reptiles, butterflies, plants and animals. Great stuff and a real education for a layman like me.

The illustrations in this book are so vivid and detailed, it even makes snakes look beautiful to me! I wish there were more books that were made this way.

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1765 At a time when unimportant volumes by hack authors sell for around $30 it is extraordinary to find a book this beautiful, this timeless at a price less than an average bottle of Chardonnay. Makes one rethink any list they might have made of books to take to a deserted island.

This is one of the best conversation pieces you can get - the illustrations are wonderful and keep both kids and adults interested for hours!

I still can't believe this is only 40 some dollars. They couldn't have even printed this book for that, could they have? It's really big and really beautiful. Such a lot of drawings it's overwhelming, printed in great quality and color on all those pages and pages. Wonderful shapes, wonderful creatures, wonderful designs. Very inspiring and interesting. Just makes me want to stop what I'm doing and devote myself to drawing things and making some cool book like this before I'm dust.

i own the outrageously gorgeous jumbo version of this book, so it's hard to be as impressed by this smaller version. even so, it is impressive on its, with lots of full page color plates.

if you want frame-worthy prints, the larger Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities (Jumbo) version is far superior. but this edition is a great reference book.

this book has pleasantly surprised/frightened/delighted me throughout numerous stages in my life.
recommend it to those with an interest in science and genuine curiosity about the world.