Date of Printing: 1839 • Medium: Engraving (hand colored) • Subject Category: Natural History - Fishes • Signed: Plate signed, Lower Right • Period Created: Romantic (1800 - 1899) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: N/A • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 10.5 x 16.5 • Style: Original Vintage • Print on Verso: Blank on verso • Condition: Excellent, with minor toning at edges • Edition Type: 1st Edition - Limited • Paper Type: Woven • Framed: Print only
Etching of a Serranus Phaeton fish, plate 19, from "The Naturalist's Library, vol. IX", by William Jardine, 1839. Engraved by Lizars after a drawing by Lieut.-Col. Chas. Hamilton Smith.
Jardine made natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing the hugely popular forty volumes of The Naturalist's Library (1833–1843) issued and published by his brother in law, the Edinburgh printer and engraver, William Home Lizars. The series was divided into four main sections: Ornithology (14 volumes), Mammalia (13 volumes), Entomology (7 volumes), and Ichthyology (6 volumes); each prepared by a leading naturalist. James Duncan wrote the insect volumes. The artists responsible for the illustrations included Edward Lear. The work was published in Edinburgh by W. H. Lizars. The frontispiece is a portrait of Pierre André Latreille.
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, KH (26 December 1776 in East Flanders, Belgium – 21 September 1859 in Plymouth) was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and spy.
Condition: there is a glue mark over the top of the image, with toning around edges. Please see photos.