New Holland Creeper. John White's Journal antique engraving c1789

by Stone, Sarah

Antique Print of Australian Tree-creeper, after Sarah Stone. This engraved illustration has the accompanying text - on the reverse of which is a list of First Fleet "Deaths between December 1786 and July 1788. On the Paffage (Passage), After the Landing, and Executed, Condemned to death by the court, but pardoned by the Governor, and Miffing (Missing)."

Original hand-coloured copperplate engraving published in London circa 1789 for Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales by Surgeon-General to the First Fleet and Settlement, John White, a capable amateur naturalist who compiled images & data on the colony's flora & fauna. Many of the engravings were from the drawings by capable artist and keen amateur naturalist, Sarah Stone (1760-1844).

The daughter of a professional fan painter, Sarah Stone, also known as Sarah Smith, worked as a natural history illustrator in England between 1777 and 1820. She did not visit Australia, but prominent 18th century collectors, including Sir Joseph Banks and Sir Ashton Lever, commissioned her to prepare watercolour drawings of animals and birds, from skins, specimens and artifacts that were sent to England from voyages of exploration to southern lands. Sarah Stone drawings of new discoveries from around the world were often the first to be seen in England. Copperplate engravings were also made from Sarah Stone watercolours to illustrate the Voyages of Captain James Cook. Some of her watercolours are now in the Australian Museum in Sydney and in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. As “Miss Stone, Honorary Exhibitor” she exhibited four paintings of birds and shells at the Royal Academy in 1781 and 1786.

Published in black and white, this wonderful engraving has fine later hand-colour. Top left corner is slightly bent, and there is slight soiling of this porous hand-made paper. These will be negligible when the plate is framed.

Size of quarto sheet is 280mm x 215mm (11 inches x 8.1/2 inches). To plate mark measures 230 x 180mm (9 x 7 inches).