Chinese Loach and Nase, Antique Fish Chromolithograph, Peking, 1855

About this sheet

This is an original antique chromolithographed plate of Chinese fishes, the seventh of the nine plates of Basilewsky's Ichthyographia Chinae Borealis. Three fishes are printed in color and lettered in Latin at the foot: the nase Nasus dauricus, the ten barbelled loach Cobitis decemcirrosus with its whiskers carefully drawn, and Cephalus mantschuricus. The plate is lettered Tabula the seventh and the Bachmann printer's line runs below.

It comes from Basilewsky's Ichthyographia Chinae Borealis, printed in 1855 in the tenth volume of the Nouveaux Memoires of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow from a text written in Peking three years earlier. All nine plates were chromolithographed by Bachmann in Moscow after paintings taken from the living fish by a Chinese painter working for the author.

The species names on this sheet, Daurian and Manchurian, map the reach of the Russian mission across northern Asia and give the plate a geography as well as a zoology. The loach with its fan of barbels is the kind of odd, specific creature that makes a natural history print worth hanging. Basilewsky worked at Peking as a physician with the Russian ecclesiastical mission and had his fishes painted from fresh specimens by a Chinese artist, which is why the colors on these plates are those of a living animal. Complete runs of the nine plates are scarce and single sheets appear on the market only occasionally. A plate of this kind frames well in plain dark wood and sits happily in a kitchen, a study or a hallway, alone or in a run with its companions.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right and top edges. All four corners complete.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.