Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10530
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‘The Wolf’
Date
1791
Creator
William Skelton (1763 - 1848, 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 Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus) shown lying in a wooded landscape.
Plate 12 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 relates that: “It may be proper however to observe that the ferocity so conspicuous in the wolf in a state of nature, is greatly mitigated by an early education; of which the individual specimen from which the present figure was taken, is a remarkable instance; having been rendered in a great degree tame and gentle by the assiduity of the late Sir Ashton Lever.”
The plate is inscribed: “C.R.Ryley delt. W.Skelton sculpt. CANIS LUPUS. THE WOLF. Pubd. as the Act directs Jany.1 1791 by J.Parkinson. Leverian Museum”
Plate 12 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 relates that: “It may be proper however to observe that the ferocity so conspicuous in the wolf in a state of nature, is greatly mitigated by an early education; of which the individual specimen from which the present figure was taken, is a remarkable instance; having been rendered in a great degree tame and gentle by the assiduity of the late Sir Ashton Lever.”
The plate is inscribed: “C.R.Ryley delt. W.Skelton sculpt. CANIS LUPUS. THE WOLF. Pubd. as the Act directs Jany.1 1791 by J.Parkinson. Leverian Museum”
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