Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10525
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‘The Polar Bear’
Date
1791
Creator
George Noble (British) , Engraver
After
Charles Reuben Ryley (1747 - 1798, British) , Painter
Object type
Library reference
R63366
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 216mm
width (print): 280mm
width (print): 280mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological study of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and cub in an Arctic landscape.
Plate 2 from Museum Leverianum containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever...by George Shaw (published by James Parkinson, 1792).
The accompanying text states that: “It is remarkable for the greatest possible attachment to its young; in defence of which it exerts every effort of the most deperate and vindictive courage...”
The plate is inscribed: “C.R.Ryley del. Noble sculp. URSUS POLARIS. THE POLAR BEAR. Publish’d April 6 1791 by J.Parkinson. Leverian Museum, London.”
Plate 2 from Museum Leverianum containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever...by George Shaw (published by James Parkinson, 1792).
The accompanying text states that: “It is remarkable for the greatest possible attachment to its young; in defence of which it exerts every effort of the most deperate and vindictive courage...”
The plate is inscribed: “C.R.Ryley del. Noble sculp. URSUS POLARIS. THE POLAR BEAR. Publish’d April 6 1791 by J.Parkinson. Leverian Museum, London.”
Object history
The natural historian George Shaw (1751-1813) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1789. His book, from which this plate is taken, was an account of the collection built up by Sir Ashton Lever FRS (1729-1788). The museum was originally at Leicester House, London and was displayed publically after Lever’s death, moving to a rotunda building near Blackfriars Bridge.
Associated place