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ENGLISH SCHOOL, 1814
Five zoological drawings of a duck-billed Platypus (Platypus Antinus)
three incribed and dated 'Bullock's Mus 4-9 March 1814', two extensively inscribed ('This specimen was brought back from Port Jackson, New South Wales abt the month of September 1813 is full 23 inches...'), one drawn to a scale in inches
three pencil, one pencil and wash
9 x 11½in. (228 x 292mm.) and smaller (5)
Five early drawings of a platypus specimen exhibited at Bullock's Museum (the Egyptian Hall at 22 Piccadilly), London. The first platypus, in the form of a dried skin, arrived in England in 1799 and further specimens arrived in the same year. Dr George Shaw, the naturalist, named the animal Platypus antinus (flat-footed and duck-like) and published the first illustrations of the animal in his Naturalist's Miscellany in 1799. The animal 'remained a biological riddle that confounded scientists for nearly ninety years, challenging theories of creationism, evolution and the classification of species along the way' (for which see A. Moyal, Platypus, The Extraordinary Story of how a curious creature baffled the world, Sydney, 2001).
Five zoological drawings of a duck-billed Platypus (Platypus Antinus)
three incribed and dated 'Bullock's Mus 4-9 March 1814', two extensively inscribed ('This specimen was brought back from Port Jackson, New South Wales abt the month of September 1813 is full 23 inches...'), one drawn to a scale in inches
three pencil, one pencil and wash
9 x 11½in. (228 x 292mm.) and smaller (5)
Five early drawings of a platypus specimen exhibited at Bullock's Museum (the Egyptian Hall at 22 Piccadilly), London. The first platypus, in the form of a dried skin, arrived in England in 1799 and further specimens arrived in the same year. Dr George Shaw, the naturalist, named the animal Platypus antinus (flat-footed and duck-like) and published the first illustrations of the animal in his Naturalist's Miscellany in 1799. The animal 'remained a biological riddle that confounded scientists for nearly ninety years, challenging theories of creationism, evolution and the classification of species along the way' (for which see A. Moyal, Platypus, The Extraordinary Story of how a curious creature baffled the world, Sydney, 2001).
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