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Titled "Thylacinus cynocephalus",
this frequently published work was produced in 1841 by the Scottish engraver,
William Home Lizars. It was presented in G. R. Waterhouse's "The
Natural History of Marsupialia or Pouched Animals", 1841. Anatomically,
it is not the most accurate of illustrations, which is puzzling since the
physical form of the thylacine was already rather familiar to scientific
illustrators at the time this work was created.
Born in Edinburgh in 1788, W. H. Lizars
was the son of Daniel Lizars, a well-known copperplate engraver and printer.
In December 1826, the American ornithologist and artist John James Audubon
made arrangements with the Lizars printing firm to produce the plates for
his four-volume magnum opus, "The Birds of America". Work
proceeded quickly on the first ten prints, but before they could be completed,
the colorists employed by Lizars went on strike. Audubon then transferred
the monumental project to the London firm of Havell & Son. It
took Robert Havell, Jr., eleven years to publish Audubon's set of 435 images,
which were finally completed in June 1838. |
