.06 Charles Henry Dessalines D’Orbigny
Throughout my numerous hours of scouring the internet for the best quality vintage marine illustrations, I came across the drawings of Charles Dessalines D’Orbigny.
Charles D’Orbigny was a botanist and geologist born in 1806 in France, where he spent the majority of his life. He came from a family of explorers and naturalists, of which his older brother Alcide, a zoologist and paleontologist, was most known. He spent a few years traveling and recording plant and animal life in South America.
The “Dictionnaire Universel d’Histoire Naturelle”, published in 1849, was edited by Charles and is considered one of the best illustrated encyclopedias of natural history. It contains 288 highly detailed and scientifically accurate engravings hand-colored by French artists such as Susemihl, Travies, Oudart, and Pretre, and features mammals, birds, insects, fish, plants, and sea life. The prints include no text other than the order, genus, and species, both in Latin and French.
Marine gastropods
While some of these species have gone through taxon changes, the illustrations still hold incredible detail and are, quite simply, stunning to look at. They are the absolute perfect aesthetic accents to the boards I’ve been putting together recently. And any taxon changes are noted in these boxes with updated labeling on the specimens used. I hope everyone enjoys them as much I do.
