Portrait of Matthias Buchinger with Vignettes

This is a later version of Baeck’s 1710 etching, which has been adapted with English subtitles and speaks to Buchinger’s life in Britain, beginning in 1717 and lasting until his death in Cork, Ireland, in 1739. Unlike the original version, the lower left vignette no longer shows Buchinger’s astonishing ability to create bottles filled with diminutive scenes cut from wood (so-called whimsy bottles). Rather, it illustrates his conjuring of live birds from under cups.