About antique prints of Fish

No human being, however great or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Fish prints make ideal gifts for fishermen, sub-aqua divers and tropical fish owners…

Fish are cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate, having jaws, gills and usually fins, a skin covered in scales, breathing through the medium of water by means of branchiae or gills, and extremities formed for swimming. A fish is a member of a paphylectic group of organisms. They can be found in all aquatic environments, from mountain streams to the deepest oceans.

Many of the wonderful copper plate engravings are from George Shaw’s Zoological Lectures at the Royal Institution published in Fleet Street,London in 1803-1806 by George Kearsley. For example, The Sea Wolf, Charr, Striped Surmullet, Centrina, Basking and Angel Shark, White bait, Carp, Tunny and more.  George Shaw also contributed to the Encyclopaedia Londinensis which was compiled by John Wilkes(1750-1810)of Milland House, West Sussex, printed for the proprietor by J.Adlard. The Diodon and river Perch are examples. Jacob van der Schley’s illustration from Abbe Prevost’s History of Voyages 1740 is very interesting showing many different fish.