Vansire or marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus), a mammal with five toes and fingers and a non-annulated tail. Engraving created in 1700s for French naturalist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), from a drawing by French wildlife artist, Jacques Henri E. De Sève (). The engraving appeared in Buffon’s influential work on natural history, the 36-volume 'Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière …’, published between 1749 and 1788. This illustration, later coloured by hand, comes from the rare 1780 French edition of the ‘Histoire’.
Hand-coloured antique engraving from a drawing by the French wildlife artist and illustrator, Jacques Henri E. De Sève. It was created for the influential 36-volume 'Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière …’, published by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, between 1749 and 1788. This page, later tinted skilfully by hand, comes from the rare 1780 French edition of the 'Histoire'. Buffon termed the animal depicted in this engraving as a vansire. It has five toes and fingers and a non-annulated tail ( tail with no ring-like segments). He correctly enumerated its grinders and distinguished it from the ferret. Subsequently, the vansire was thought to be an Egyptian mongoose (also known as an ichneumon) or a Madagascan weasel. Both weasels and ferrets fall under the scientific name Mustelidae, which also includes badgers and otters. Mongoose on the other hand belong to another family, the Herpestidae, which includes meerkats. Jacques Henri E. De Sève () is one of the most influential natural history artists of all time. He created hundreds of animal images, many of which now seem fantastical, but an interesting feature is his inclusion of wildlife habitats; he did not merely depict animals, but rather placed them in an appropriate environment. His work was widely copied in engravings by others for later editions of Buffon's books. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), was a French naturalist remembered for his comprehensive work on natural history. He was appointed keeper of the Jardin du Roi (royal botanical garden) in Paris and charged with cataloguing the royal collections in natural history. He produced an account of the whole of nature, which became the 'Histoire’.
Size: 7591px × 10105px
Location: In natural habitat
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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