• Title
  Bullock's Museum drawings of the Platypus Anatinus, 1814 / [by unknown artist, English school]
• Creator
  London Museum (1812-1819)
• Call number
  PXA 1014
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1814
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Textual Records, Drawings
• Reference code
  440354
• Physical Description
  5 drawings
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  William Bullock was a nineteenth century naturalist and antiquarian, who established a museum of curiosities in northern England in the late 1790s, which moved to Liverpool in 1801. In 1812 Bullock moved his collections to London and the newly built Egyptian Temple (later Egyptian Hall), Piccadilly, which became an established London landmark, known as the London Museum. It closed in 1819, with some of the collection being auctioned, and some sold to the University of Edinburgh. -- Curator's notes, 2004
• Scope and Content
  1(a-c). Three pencil drawings with two inscriptions.
  1(a). Untitled drawing of bill
  1(b). "Platypus Anatinus Bullocks Mus. 4 Mch. 1814
  Sketched on the spot - no appearance of the teeth / or serrated process expressed in Dr Shaws figure in / Nat. Misc. nor any appearance of the ears- / This specimen was brought from Port Jackson / New South Wales about the month of Sept. 1813 / is - full 23 Inches / Probably the forked tail in Dr Shaws specimen / may be a sexual difference - there is also a / difference at the angle of the Bill this specimen / being without the horny plate or process figured / in Dr Shaws representation - this also may / be sexual."
  1(c). "Platypus Anatinus. Bullocks Mus. 4 Mch 1814
  Sketched on the spot - seen vertically & foreshortened / Tail entire Fur very thick soft and of a satin feel / No mammce [?] ears quite hid in the fur - / Colour almost exactly that of the Fallow Deer / (Cerus Dama) underpart from Throat throughout / of a yellowish white blending at the sides into / the brown of the Back."
  Three pencil drawings, 6.2 x 8.8 cm., 17.8 x 9.9 cm. and 17.7 x 10 cm., on sheet 32 x 25.8 cm.
  2. "Platypus Anatinus / Bullocks Mus. 9 March 1814 / [with] A Scale of Inches"
  One pencil & ink drawing, 17.7 x 30 cm., on sheet 25.8 cm.
  3. "Platypus Anatinus V.S. Mammalia Bruta ? Amphibia poti.. / The Bill compared with that of the common duck." (at head of drawings)
  "Anas Domesticus N.S. different views of the same from nature" (below drawings)
  Pencil & wash drawings, on card 22.7 x 28.4 cm. Stamped on reverse Thomas / Bristol / Paper / Creswick
  4-5. Two blank sheets, one inscribed "Fig II."
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• General note
  
  These five drawings, dated March 1814, depict a specimen, which entered the Museum's collection in September 1813. The platypus, from the moment of its first recording in 1797, excited considerable interest and curiosity, and was famously thought to be a hoax. First specimens arrived in England in 1799. Indeed it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that the platypus's complex history was resolved. This was not the Museum's first specimen - one was displayed in the Pantherion (the main exhibition hall of the Museum) in 1812, and illustrated opposite page 47 in "A companion to Mr Bullocks London Museum 1812" (ML 507/B). -- Curator's notes, Apr 2004
  The references to Dr Shaw's specimen in the inscriptions refers to George Shaw and his published illustrations of the "Duck-Billed Platypus" by Frederick Nodder, 1799, in The Naturalist's Miscellany.
  An illustration of a stuffed platypus on display in a London museum showcase is the frontispiece to "Fanny and Mary, or Juvenile views of Happiness", London, Harvey and Darton, 1821 (Mitchell Library call no. 823.7/3)
  References:
  The naturalist's miscellany, or, Coloured figures of natural objects drawn and described immediately from nature [/ George Shaw]. London : F.P. Nodder, [1813 or 1814] Vol.10
  Platypus / Ann Moyal. Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2002, c2001.
  Digital order no:Album ID : 823412
• Subject
  Animals--Identification.
  Platypus--Pictorial works.
  Zoology.
  
• Topic
  natural history illustrations
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3193008

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