Images Dated 7th November 2011

1551 Gesner armoured rhino after Durer

Gesner Woodcut "Icones Animalium" 1560, reproduced from 1551. Published Christoph Froschover, Zurich. Gesner reproduces this image faithfully from the famous 1515 woodcut by Durer, (who himself had only sketches to go on). The particular individual featured here was the gift of a Sultan, taken from India in January 1515 and arriving in Lisbon in May. People were astounded to see this animal - hitherto the only existing reports were in the accounts of the ancients such as Pliny. None had been seen in Europe for over 1000 years. Confirming Pliny's account was a vital validation of the texts from antiquity for renaissance scholars. The king of Portugal sent the rhino on to the Pope but it drowned, chained to the deck, in a shipwreck off Italy - hence the rather fanciful drawing of Durer and Gesner who never actually saw it. This image remained an icon for for centuries

© PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

1816 Bullocks Museum curios and fossils

1816 handcoloured copperplate engraving by R. Sands from a drawing by J.P. Neale, published by John Harris for "The Beauties of England and Wales". The Egyptian Hall was built in 1812 by William Bullock in Piccadilly, London, to house his collections which included taxidermy, fossils and ethnographic items brought back by Captain Cook. As a public museum it was a great success drawing in over 220, 000 visitors in 1816. The first Mary Anning specimen of an ichthyosaur were displayed at Bullock's Museum (as well as later more complete specimens belonging to Thomas Birch described by Sir Everard Home in an article of 1819 and named by him Proteosaurus). Bullock's collection was sold in 1819 and Birch's in 1820. The British Museum bought Anning's first ichthyosaur skull and the Royal College of Surgeons bought Birch's more complete specimen - which was destroyed by the bombing of 1941

© PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

1838 Maidstone Iguanodon Mantell piece'a

The famous Mantell piece, a rock slab containing the most complete set of articulated dinosaur bones discovered up to that time - those of an iguanodon found in Maidstone, Kent. It was in the possession of Gideon Mantell and here appears in his "Wonders of Geology" (1838), published by Relphe and Fletcher, drawn by Dinkel and lithographed by George Sharf (with later tinting). From these and other fossil bones Mantell made estimates of the size of this saurian based on extant land iguanas. Indeed this piece is considered the type specimen. The Mantell piece was originally found by a quarry owner, W.H. Bensted. Bensted would not take Mantell's offering price of £10. It eventually came into Mantell's possession only after a group of his friends raised the £25 Bensted wanted. It was, as Mantell noted, one of the most extraordinary specimens in Europe

© This image is Paul D. Stewart 2009. Do not reproduce without permission of the photographer at Stewartpauld@aol.com