1856 · Birds, Plants & Natural History
Japanese Rockfish, Antique Perry Expedition Fish Lithograph, 1856
$305
€275 · dollar price at today's exchange rate
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Shipping to the United States: $50 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.
- Date
- 1856
- Maker
- James Carson Brevoort, with the figures drawn by the artists of the United States Japan Expedition
- Kind
- Birds, Plants & Natural History
- Technique
- Lithograph
- Color
- Printed color
- Size
- 22 × 29.5 cm (8.7 × 11.6 in)
- Condition
- Good. Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the left and right edges. All four corners complete.
- Period
- Westward Expansion & Civil War
- Reference
- BG-14475-2-2
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.
Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured.
Delivery and import charges.
About this piece
This is an original antique lithographed plate of Japanese fishes from the official report of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, the fourth plate of its natural history series. Two figures of the marbled rockfish Sebastes marmoratus fill the plate in color, numbered one and two and lettered in Latin at the foot, under the heading of the United States Japan Expedition and Natural History Plate the fourth. The drawing is credited to H. Patterson.
This sheet comes from Notes on some Figures of Japanese Fish by James Carson Brevoort, issued with the official account of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, Washington, 1856. The drawings were made on the spot from fresh fish by the expedition artists, which is why the colors are those of a living animal rather than a faded museum specimen. The drawing on this plate is credited to H. Patterson.
Showing the same species twice is deliberate: the rockfishes vary so much in color and marking that a single figure would have misled the naturalist reading the report. That practical scientific purpose is part of what makes the Perry plates interesting beyond their looks. The plates frame well in a simple pale frame and look well in a run of two or three along a hallway, a kitchen or a bathroom wall.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the left and right edges. All four corners complete.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.
