Die Amphibien
Die Amphibien is a German natural history book of 1809 by Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm, printed at the editor's expense and held by the ETH-Bibliothek. Its hand-coloured copperplates in numbered tables show reptiles and amphibians such as snakes, lizards, newts and a salamander-like skeleton, drawn in plain outline with muted washes of green, brown, pink and red against pale ground. A designer could take from them the clear scientific diagram style, with specimens isolated on bare grounds and labelled plate numbers.
