• Title
  Item 06: [Elephant fish (Callorhinchus milii), between 1788 and 1797 / attributed to the Port Jackson Painter]
• Call number
  V*/Fish/2
  
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  ca. 1800-1819
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Watercolours
• Reference code
  446145
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 watercolour - 30.1 x 45.5 cm.
  
• Scope and Content
  An elephant fish with a proboscis-like projection of the snout.
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  The work is not signed or dated.
  Digital order no:a928143
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Inscribed in ink below image, "Reduced to 1/2 the size of nature. This Fish when first caught was of a very bright silver colour. / The Fish has a false belly and Viviparous"
  Inscribed in pencil in a non-contemporaneous hand below image, "Elephant fish (Callorhynchus Antarcticus)"
  Watermarked paper (undated), "J. Whatman"
• Attributions / conjectures
  
  Formerly attributed to J.W. Lewin based on pencil inscription from Library Bindery Officer's hand, "Original Watercolour / by J.W. Lewin / No.2" when removed from Rotunda in 1933. (The Rotunda was a former housing system used by the Mitchell Library). The style and composition does not appear to be the work of J.W. Lewin.
  
  The drawing is a strikingly similar to one held in the First Fleet artwork collection, Natural History Museum, London. See: Fish, native name "Warriwall" between 1788-1797 / Port Jackson Painter. Reference: Watling Drawing - no. 377.
  
  Reference:
  Natural History Museum. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/art-nature-imaging/collections/first-fleet/art-collection/index.dsml (accessed April 4, 2012)
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Port Jackson Painter, active 1788-1792
  
• Topic
  fish
  natural history illustrations
  

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