Encyclopaedic plates

The encyclopaedic natural history prints are a particularly captivating part of the collection. Some were produced by the Zoological Society of London, though they are not chromolithographs – instead, they are hand-watercoloured, crayon-drawn, and printed in black, dated from 1855 to 1888. I spent a considerable time studying these plates and admiring the delicacy of their drawings. It is fascinating to compare them with the butterflies' chromolithographed plates, as each reflects its approach to line and colour, shaped by the subject it seeks to portray.