Antique hand-coloured engraving of eight octopuses in tan, brown and grey, arranged in rows on a white background.

Two small octopuses from an antique engraving, one pale orange and one dark brown, on white. — Inside: four of your photos stand up below this, with your note.

No. 177 of 248 · The Natural History Series

Octopuses (Seba)

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Eight curling octopuses fill the cover, an engraved and hand-coloured plate from Albertus Seba's Thesaurus of Natural Curiosities of 1758. Seba was an Amsterdam apothecary who had his great cabinet of shells and sea creatures drawn and engraved, and octopuses remain among the cleverest animals without a backbone. For someone who loves the sea and its stranger creatures.

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On the back

From the great natural-history books of the 1700s to the 1900s / OCTOPUSES / Octopoda / Octopuses are among the cleverest animals without a backbone: they can open jars, slip through any gap bigger than their beak, and change colour and texture in an instant. / Thesaurus of Natural Curiosities, vol. 3, 1758 / Albertus Seba, an Amsterdam apothecary, had his great cabinet of shells and sea creatures drawn and engraved.

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