Franz Michael Regenfuss

Plate V, from "Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés", 1758. Franz Michael Regenfuss. Hand-colored engraving. Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019.
The Nuremberg artist Regenfuss was fascinated by exotic natural-history objects. As early as 1745, he began to plan for an illustrated book dedicated to shells and crustaceans but, due to several setbacks, was not able to realize the project until 1758, after relocating to Denmark. There he found the support of Count Adam Gottlob von Moltke, who had himself compiled a famous cabinet of shells, and who successfully recommended Regenfuss as engraver to the king. Regenfuss’s publication was extremely popular thanks to the unprecedented large size of the prints and the almost three-dimensional effect of the illustrations. The latter feat was achieved through the careful application of color, most of which was done by his wife, Margaretha Helena.