Item PZ 5.1 Pencil illustration - Lepidotrigla vanessa, The Spiny-sided Butterely-Gurnard, Arthur Bartholomew

Summary

Pencil illustration (D379) of a Butterfly Gurnard, Lepidotrigla vanessa, by Arthur Bartholomew. This work was commissioned by Frederick McCoy, the first Director of The National Museum of Victoria, for Plate 5 in The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria; Figures and descriptions of the living species of all classes of the Victoria indigenous animals. Bartholomew's illustrations were based on a specimen from Hobsons Bay, Port Phillip, August 1864, now registered as NMV 41545 in Museum's Ichthyology Collection.

This illustration forms part of the much larger Prodromus Collection. Many of the original illustrations and prints in the collection informed the production of The Prodromus, the first major publication of the National Museum of Victoria. Between 1878 and 1890, McCoy published his zoology 'Prodromus' as 20 parts in two volumes, with each part comprising 20 plates. Unfortunately, almost 90 plates in the collection remain unpublished, and hundreds of illustrations were either not completed or not printed.

Description of Content

Butterfly Gurnard, Lepidotrigla vanessa by Arthur Bartholomew. Pencil illustration on paper, August 1864, 18cm x 27cm, for Plate 5 in The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria by Frederick McCoy.