Four sheets of studies showing different species of tropical marine fish, including two species of blenny and a butterfly fish (no. 1); a grunt, a parrotfish and a banded butterfly fish (no. 2); a grouper, marbled grouper and butterfly fish (no. 3); and a parrotfish (no. 4)

These four drawings are rare early records of the tropical fish of the South East Asian region, which ships belonging to the Dutch East India Company encountered as they sailed their trading routes. The first known Dutch artist to record the tropical fish of the region in coloured drawings was Samuel Fallours, who was employed by the Dutch East India Company. His drawings were bound into an album, which arrived in Amsterdam in 1710 and was used as the basis for Louis Renard's Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes que l'on trouve autour des Isles Moluqes (published in 1718). Bronkhorst may have taken Fallours's drawings as his source, or it is possible that he worked directly from preserved specimens which had been sent back from the East. No other drawings of fish are known by Bronkhorst, although some of his drawings of insects are in the collection of the Etymology Library in the Natural History Museum, London.

We are very grateful to Professor Carel Richter, and to Paul Martyn Cooper of the Natural History Museum, for their assistance in preparing this catalogue note.