1801 Shaw - SPOTTED EEL Muraena - fine first impression in hand colour

22 x 13 cm

Fine copper engraving. Later hand color.

Printed by Keasrley, Fleet Street, 1801.

Dr. Shaw (1751-1813) was a Fellow of the Royal Society, co-founder of the Linnean Society and a zoologist and keeper of the natural history department at the British Museum in London.

These striking illustrations, based almost entirely from Bloch and Lacépède's great works on Fishes, were engraved principally by James Heath, an associate of the Royal Academy and royal engraver to King George III in 1794.