Couscoos, handcoulered engraving, Goldsmith, 1850, gs

Plate LII 1. Rapouna Couscoos 2. Cook's Couscoos

A History of the Earth and Animated Nature
by Oliver Goldsmith published by A. Fullarton (1850) 

Original hand-coloured engravings over 150 years old
Sheet size: ca 17 x 25 cm, approx. 6¼ x 9¼ inches.

These copper-plate engravings are from Oliver Goldsmith's (1728-1774) A History of the Earth and Animated Nature.  The first edition (in eight volumes) appeared in London in 1774. The work sought to draw together virtually all that was known about the planet earth, its plants and animals, and even its human inhabitants described from a biological perspective.  Goldsmith had intended to translate Pliny's Natural History, but after reading Buffon, he decided that "the best imitation of the ancients was to write from our own feelings and to imitate nature."  Goldsmith's Animated Nature went through over twenty editions into the Victorian era and served as a popular source of information about the natural world.