Phosphoric pennatula sea-pen, Pennatula phosphorea
Phosphoric pennatula or sea-pen Pennatula phosphorea Pink sea-pen, a colonial marine cnidarian, named for their resemblance to feather quill pens. "This curious animal emits a very strong phosphoric light, and it is even so luminous that is is no uncommon circumstance for the fishermen to see the fish which happen to be swimming near it, merely by the light of the pennatula." Illustration signed S (George Shaw). Handcolored copperplate engraving from George Shaw and Frederick Nodder's "The Naturalist's Miscellany" 1790. Frederick Polydore Nodder (1751~1801?) was a gifted natural history artist and engraver. Nodder honed his draftsmanship working on Captain Cook and Joseph Banks' Florilegium and engraving Sydney Parkinson's sketches of Australian plants. He was made "botanic painter to her majesty" Queen Charlotte in 1785. Nodder also drew the botanical studies in Thomas Martyn's Flora Rustica (1792) and 38 Plates (1799). Most of the 1,064 illustrations of animals, birds, insects, crustaceans, fishes, marine life and microscopic creatures for the Naturalist's Miscellany were drawn, engraved and published by Frederick Nodder's family. Frederick himself drew and engraved many of the copperplates until his death. His wife Elizabeth is credited as publisher on the volumes after 1801. Their son Richard Polydore (1774~1823) was responsible for the plates signed RN or RPN. Richard exhibited at the Royal Academy and became botanic painter to King George III. The illustrations are characterized by vivid colouring, fine detail, and a certain posed stiffness in the ornithological portraits, perhaps because they were sketched from dead specimens.
Size: 3037px × 4749px
Photo credit: © Florilegius / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: antique, aquatic, banks, botany, captain, cnidarian, cook, copperplate, coral, engraving, entomology, fauna, feather, flora, frederick, george, handcolored, history, illustration, joseph, luminous, marine, miscellany, naturae, natural, naturalist, nodder, octocoral, ornithology, pennatula, phosphorea, phosphoric, polydore, quill, richard, scarlet, sea-pen, shaw, soft, vivarium, zoology, zoophyte
