Lemur, Meerkat and Tenrec, Three Antique Sonnerat Mammal Plates, 1806

This set of three original antique copper engravings, Plates 87, 90 and 91 from Sonnerat's Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine, is sold as one set. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. Plate 87 shows a tufted maki, one of the lemurs of Madagascar, shown in profile on a branch with its long ringed tail hanging below. Plate 90 shows the zenik of the Hottentots, the animal now known as the meerkat, shown standing on all fours in profile. Plate 91 shows the lesser tenrec of Madagascar, a small spiny insectivore shown in profile with its coarse bristled back. Each sheet carries its engraved plate number at the upper right, the artist and engraver credits at the foot of the image and its caption lettered beneath.

Pierre Sonnerat published his Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine in Paris in 1782, and the plates were reissued in this separate folio volume by Dentu in 1806 under the title Collection de planches pour servir au Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine. Every image was drawn by Sonnerat himself during the voyage he made for the French crown between 1774 and 1781 and then cut on copper by the Paris engravers who worked for him. They are original copperplate engravings, printed from the intaglio plates onto laid paper. The engraved plate number stands at the upper right, the artist and engraver credits run along the foot of the image and the caption is lettered beneath. The sheets are uncolored, as the plate volume was issued.

The mammal plates are the part of the volume that natural history collectors pursue. Several of the animals Sonnerat drew were new to European science when the book appeared, and the Madagascar sheets in particular are among the earliest printed images of their subjects. All three sheets are the same size and the same orientation and come from one volume of one book, which is why they are offered as a set and not one at a time. Sonnerat is remembered in the names of the things he found. The mangrove genus Sonneratia carries his name, so does the gray junglefowl Gallus sonneratii, and the botanical author abbreviation Sonn. stands for him. He was the first to put the name aye-aye into print, and the name indri entered European use through him as well. The plates in this volume are the record of that work.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Scattered light foxing in the margins of all three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of two of the three sheets.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. This item is sold unframed.