Antarctic Crab
Natural History Study

This item is sold.  It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

Durville Crab
Durville Crab
Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) (editor)
Borromée (painter)
Bougeard (illustrator)
Victor (engraver)
Lithode Antarctique Plate 7
from Voyage au Pole Sud et Dans L'Oceanie sur Les Corvettes L'Astrolabe et La Zélée...Pendant Les Années 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840
[Voyage to the South Pole and through Oceania on the Corvettes Astrolabe and Zélée...During the Years 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840]

Hand-colored aquatint
Paris: 1841-1854 (atlas volume)
20.75 x 13.5 inches, overall (folio)
16.25 x 10.75 inches, plate mark
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Natural history study of an Antarctic crab.  The crab is depicted in an overhead view displaying it as a typical scientific specimen. 

A blind stamp appears in the lower center margin of each print saying, “Gide Editeur Paris.”  Voyage au Pole Sud... reported on the geography, geology, anthropology and natural history of Oceania and the South Pacific, which d’Urville had explored.  He enlisted scientific collaborators to write and illustrate each section. The zoology section contained about 110 plates, including 29 of mammals. 

Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville was a French navigator who surveyed and explored the Falklands, Oceania and the South Pacific on two voyages between 1822 and 1829.  On his second circumnavigation of the world between 1837 and 1840, on the Astrolabe and the Zélée, he penetrated the ice pack south of New Zealand and discovered the Adélie Coast region of Antarctica, which he named for his wife.  Earlier in his career, D’Urville encountered the newly-discovered Venus de Milo while surveying the Mediterranean, and brought it to the attention of  the Louvre, where it remains a featured part of the collection.  He published several books with scientific collaborators about his voyages, including this one. 

Reference:

“Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville .” The 1911 Edition Encyclopedia. LoveToKnow Corp.: 2002.  http://77.1911encyclopedia.org/D/DU/