The Waterbuck. Hand coloured lithograph by William Cornwallis Harris. 1842. R3,000

This hand-coloured folio lithograph is Plate XIV: The Water Buck (XIV. Aigocerus Ellipsiprymnus) from Major Sir William Cornwallis Harris's seminal 1840 work, Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa.

Historical & Bibliographical Context

 First In-Situ Field Depictions of Southern African Wildlife: Prior to Cornwallis Harris’s expedition into the interior of Southern Africa (1836–1837), most European natural history illustrations of African megafauna were drawn from taxidermy mounts, skeletal remains, or secondhand travelers' sketches. Harris—an officer in the British East India Company Engineers—was an accomplished artist who sketched the animals directly from life in their natural habitats.

 Landmark of Victorian Colour Lithography: The folio is celebrated as one of the finest natural history works ever produced on African fauna. The plates were lithographed by Frank Howard and painstakingly hand-coloured, capturing both the anatomical detail of the animals and the atmospheric landscapes of the 19th-century South African interior.

Cornwallis Harris, an engineer with the British East India Company, took medical leave in South Africa in 1836. He ventured into the interior of Southern Africa—reaching regions ruled by the Ndebele king Mzilikazi—specifically to sketch fauna in situ. His field drawings became primary scientific records for several species before European settlement and large-scale hunting altered their habitats.

The waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. It is in the genus Kobus of the family Bovidae. It was first described by Irish naturalist William Ogilby in 1833. Its 13 subspecies are grouped under two varieties: the common or ellipsiprymnus waterbuck and the defassa waterbuck. Their coat colour varies from brown to grey. The long, spiral horns, present only on males, curve backward, then forward, and are 55–99 cm (22–39 in) long.

This page has been restored and recoloured; there is still a trace of mount board burn around the image.
550mm x 370mm

R3,000