‘Tiger Shark’ and ‘Zeylon Wrasse’
Date
1790
Creator
Peter Mazell (1721, Irish) , Engraver
Object type
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (page): 185mm
width (page): 245mm
height (print): 155mm
width (print): 195mm
width (page): 245mm
height (print): 155mm
width (print): 195mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological study of two species of sea creature: the tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier [top] and the moon wrasse, Thalassoma lunare [bottom]. The shark is shown with a long body with stripes down the length of it, resembling a tiger’s pattern, and the wrasse a squatter, green body with a colourful head and fins.
Inscribed: ‘TIGER SHARK P Mazell Sculp ZEYLON WRASSE’
Written in the associated description: ‘The head of this shark ends obtusely, being of an equal thickness: the nostrils are at the end of the nose: at each corner of the mouth is a strong beard: the fins of the back are rounded and contiguous: it is of the division that has the anal fin.
[…]
The head [of the wrasse] is blue: the coverts of the gills green, marked with purple lines: the whole body a rich green: the dorsal and anal fins purple, edged with pale sky-blue’.
Plate 16 from Thomas Pennant’s Indian Zoology (London, 1790), printed by Henry Hughs for Robert Faulder.
Thomas Pennant (1726–1798), British naturalist, traveller, and writer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767. Best known for his published accounts of tours throughout the British Isles. He never travelled outside of Europe and his account of Indian Zoology was gleamed from drawings brought back by Joan Gideon Loten (1710-1789), a servant in the colonies of the Dutch East India Company and 29th Governor of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon.
Inscribed: ‘TIGER SHARK P Mazell Sculp ZEYLON WRASSE’
Written in the associated description: ‘The head of this shark ends obtusely, being of an equal thickness: the nostrils are at the end of the nose: at each corner of the mouth is a strong beard: the fins of the back are rounded and contiguous: it is of the division that has the anal fin.
[…]
The head [of the wrasse] is blue: the coverts of the gills green, marked with purple lines: the whole body a rich green: the dorsal and anal fins purple, edged with pale sky-blue’.
Plate 16 from Thomas Pennant’s Indian Zoology (London, 1790), printed by Henry Hughs for Robert Faulder.
Thomas Pennant (1726–1798), British naturalist, traveller, and writer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767. Best known for his published accounts of tours throughout the British Isles. He never travelled outside of Europe and his account of Indian Zoology was gleamed from drawings brought back by Joan Gideon Loten (1710-1789), a servant in the colonies of the Dutch East India Company and 29th Governor of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon.
Related fellows
Thomas Pennant (1726 - 1798, Welsh) , Naturalist
Joan Gideon Loten (1710 - 1789) , Colonial administrator
Joan Gideon Loten (1710 - 1789) , Colonial administrator
Associated place