Art Gallery - Seba

From Albert Seba's Loccupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri Accurata Descripta 1734-1765 Seba was born in 1665 in the East Frisian town of Etzel. The basis of his fortune was his success as an apothecary in Amsterdam, treating for many years such illustrious clients as Peter the Great, to whom he ultimately sold his first collection. As the center of maritime trade since the 17th century Amsterdam was an ideal location for the entrepreneurial Seba to prosper. He treated many of the sailors & officials traveling on behalf of the Dutch East India Company & in return actively solicited natural history specimens & raw ingredients for pharmaceuticals from the far away shores of the Dutch Empire. Seba amassed a huge collection of specimens and artifacts with many exquisite pieces from the East and West Indies, among these no less than 700 jars of the rarest exotic animals and many particularly rare snakes. Also in the collection were every exceptional sort of beautiful and rare conch, the finest specimens of exotic butterflies and many botanical specimens of rare & unusual plants. Seba commissioned many of the noted scientist & artist of the day, including Artedi, Musschenbroek, Massuet, Graubius, and Boerhaave to collaborate on the production of his magnificent 446 plate Thesaurus. He died shortly after the publication commenced in 1736 & his second collection was sold to museums around the world to finance the publication. References include The Art of Natural History p.46, & “Albert’s Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities”, which contains full pages facsimiles of every print in the work.