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65640

Title
Collection 23: Australian fishes, 1774-1794 / George Raper, and unknown artist
Creator
George Raper, 1769-1797
Call number
SAFE/PXD 18
Level of description
sub-fonds
Date

1774-1794
Type of material
Graphic Materials, Watercolours
Reference code
65640
Issue Copy
Digitised
Physical Description
18 drawings - watercolour
ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

George Raper, able seaman, traveled with the First Fleet on board the Sirius. En route he was promoted Midshipman.
He was one of the crew stranded on Norfolk Island for almost a year following the wrecking of the Sirius on 19 March 1789. He returned to Port Jackson on board the Supply in February 1791 and embarked on the Waaksaamheid to return to England in the same month.
Raper is known for his watercolour paintings and drawings of landscape, flora and fauna.
Scope and Content
1. Shark 6ft 8in Commerce de Marseilles, G. Raper July 9 [rest of date overbound. Shark with 9 gill slits]. Signed and dated `G. Raper July 9', 1794 lower right (date partially overbound and trimmed?)
This drawing has been dated 1794 on the basis of Raper's service on the Commerce de Marseille from September 1793 to March 1795.
2. Dolphin 4ft 6 [in.] by Geo. Raper 1794 [Coryphaena hippurus Linne]. Signed and dated `Geo. Raper 1794', lower right (partially overbound)
3. [Leather Jacket. Meuschenia trachylepsis (Gunther)]
4. Salmo [Sergeant Baker, Latropiscus milesii (Cur. And Val.)]
5. [Red Gurnard, Currupiscis volucer Whitley]
6. [Roundhead, Paraplesiops bleekeri (Gunther)]
7. [Tunny with 14 vertical bars on body and nine yellow dorsal and anal finlets. Similar to Pelamis sarda Cur. & Val., pl. 217]
8. [Crimson-banded Parrot Fish, Pseudolabrus gymnogenis (Gunther)]
9. [Elephant Shark, Callorynchus milii Bory.]
10. Fish of Norfolk Island 1/2 Natural Size. Geo. Raper 1790 [Pigfish, Verreo unimaculatus (Gunther)]
Signed and dated `Geo. Raper 1790', lower right
11. [A crude drawing, probably not by Raper, apparently representing the Red Gurnard, Corrupiscis volucer Whitley]
12. [Rock Whiting, Neoodax semifasciatus richardsonii (Gunther)]
13. [Muraenoid eel]
14. [Unfinished proofs of copper plates, of Palaearctic invertebrates, from Captain Constantine James Phipps' Voyage to the North Pole, 1774.]
15. [Unfinished proofs of copper plates, of Palaearctic invertebrates, from Captain Constantine James Phipps' Voyage to the North Pole, 1774.]
16. [Rainbow Fish, Heteroscarus filamentosus Castelnau]
17. [Void]
18. [Schnapper, Chrysophrys guttulatus (Cur. and Val.)]
19. [Brushtailed phaseogale or opossum]. Appears to be the work of another artist.
Access Conditions

Access via appointment
Copying Conditions
Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955.
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
General note

Identified 1933 by Gilbert P. Whitley, Australian Museum; list below published Australian Zoologist, vol. viii, pt 2, p. 150.
Titles as they appear on the originals. Titles in square brackets have been supplied by G.P. Whitley, Ichthyologist, Australian museum (30 November 1933), and published in Australian Zoologist vol. viii, pt 2, p. 150 (ML Ref Q590.5/A)
The copper plate engravings are unfinished proofs of illustrations by Barnes in Mulgrave, Constantine John Phipps, 2nd Baron, A voyage towards the North Pole (London: J. Nourse, 1774) (85Q, pp. 194, 200).
Notes on Raper's drawings (ML PXD 17 and PXD 18), compiled by the Mitchell Library, are located at PXn 368.
Digital order no:c050140012
Signatures / Inscriptions

ff. 14, 15: `J. Caldwall Sculp' lower right
Subject
Artists--Australia--18th century.
First Fleet, 1787-1788.
Topic
colonial art
eels
fish
invertebrates
natural history illustrations
seashells
sharks
Exhibited in

A Rage for Curiosity - State Library of New South Wales (1 September, 1997 - 11 January, 1998)
Painting the Pacific - State Library of New South Wales (January, 2002 - April, 2002)
Open Rosetta viewer
IE4590111