Farmers harvesting cochineal beetles, Dactylopius coccus, from cactus.
Farmers harvesting cochineal beetles, Dactylopius coccus, from Opuntia cochenillifera cactus and roasting and drying the insects to prepare carmine dye, Mexico, circa 1800. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from Bertuch's Bilderbuch fur Kinder (Picture Book for Children), Weimar, 1807. Friedrich Johann Bertuch (1747-1822) was a German publisher and man of arts most famous for his 12-volume encyclopedia for children illustrated with 1,200 engraved plates on natural history, science, costume, mythology, etc., published from 1790-1830.
Size: 4801px × 5959px
Photo credit: © Florilegius / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 18th, beetle, bertuch, bilderbuch, book, cactus, carmine, century, children, coccus, cochenillifera, cochineal, copperplate, dactylopius, dry, dye, educational, encyclopedia, engraving, farmers, friedrich, fur, german, handcoloured, harvest, history, illustration, insects, johann, kinder, mexico, natural, opuntia, picture, picturebook, publisher, red, roast, scarlet, weimar
