75 5650 Months of the year Dusart C 1660 1704
- February cut to the image and with modern added margins; March and April w. tiny closed hole/ tear; January w. repaired tear in lower (blank) and upper corner; December upper right corner repaired; all trifle/ sl. foxed.
= February with the collector's mark of Friedrich August II of Saxony (Lugt 971). The 3rd and final state, with the names of the months. Hollstein 20-31. Ackley 201: "It is difficult to discern stylistic differences between the four plates said to be by Gole and those to be by Dusart. The "Gole" plates are inscribed not "Gole fecit" but "Gole exc.", identifying Gole as the publisher. I am inclined to think that all are executed by Dusart, including February, one of the most successful in the series. Perhaps Gole's "finishing" of the plates consisted only of a few final touches and the addition of inscriptions to the plates.". "In (...) March, the mezzotint medium, with its subtractive method of scraping lighter areas out of a darker field, encouraged Dusart to represent a rare motif in the seventeenth century: falling snowflakes." A complete set is rarely found on the market. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE LXXV.