Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.20825

    Andaman pit viper

    Date
    1872
    Creator
    Hurrish Chunder Khan (Indian) , Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 280mm
    width (painting): 280mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Natural history
    Biology
       > Zoology
          > Herpetology
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
          > snake
    Description
    Herpetological study of an Andaman pit viper, Trimeresurus andersonii, here referred to as the same. Viewed from above, with full body depicted and three sketched details showing scalation of the head and body, and the fangs. Details of specimen size provided.

    Inscribed: ‘FROM NATURE/ TRIMERESURUS ANDERSONII/ IND MUS/ Length 1’.92”/ Circum 2” / Drawn by Hurrish Chunder Khan, Student. Govt. Sch: of Art Calcutta’ with further pencil annotation ‘Plate 20’. Pencil annotations believed to be in Joseph Fayrer’s hand.

    From MS/628, a set of paintings and drawings executed by students of the Government School of Art, Kolkata, for Joseph Fayrer’s The Thanatophidia of India. Later published as the right-hand specimen on plate 15 of this text.

    Hurrish Chunder Khan, student at the Government School of Art, Kolkata.

    Sir Joseph Fayrer, first baronet, (1824-1907), surgeon and author, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877. Fayrer worked in India between 1850 and 1872 and is best known for The Thanatophidia of India, a study of venomous snakes, illustrated by members of the Kolkata School of Art and published by the colonial government.
    Object history
    These artworks were presented to the Royal Society on 8 January 1874 by Joseph Fayrer and acknowledged shortly after at a meeting of Council: ‘Read a letter from Dr. Fayrer, offering his collection of original drawings of the Poisonous Snakes of India to the Royal Society. Resolved - That Dr. Fayrer’s offer be accepted, and that the best thanks of the President and Council be returned to him for his gift.’ [Royal Society Minutes of Council, Printed, vol. 4, 1870-1877, p.204, 15 January 1874.]
    Related fellows
    Joseph Fayrer (1824 - 1907, British) , Surgeon
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > India
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