SOLD Lepidopterine Mite, Surrealesque 1790 Shaw and Nodder Hand-colored Copper Engraving old vice with the white looking perhaps

with the white looking perhaps to be tempera paint

Surely some fading to the ink and general toning to the paper

serving as the perfect life raft (and wonderfully painted with waves on its lower half) seems to be grimacing all the while

with the sullen subject reluctantly sitting for the portrait

looks like a  jockey to me

SOLD Lepidopterine Mite, Surrealesque 1790 Shaw and Nodder Hand-colored Copper Engraving old vice with the white looking perhapsThis is a hand colored Shaw and Nodder copper engraving of a Lepidopterine Mite. As I understand it, these mites specifically targets the tympanic membranes (ears) of owlet moths, invading and breed in the moth's ear. And only one ear of the moth, leaving the moth with one functional ear, allowing it to still hear and evade predators, and ensuring the host (and the mite) survives Amazing. And, as rendered here, it looks like a completely surreal,