Eel

This study of an eel is one of fourteen drawings and one colored proof engraving removed from Mark Catesby's "The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands..." 2 vol., London, 1731- 1743 (PML 45708-45709). Henrietta Ryan of the Royal Collection Trust at Windsor expressed doubt about the attribution of the sheet to Catesby suggesting that it more likely was the work of David Pennant, who had copied Catesby's work (departmental correspondence, 14 August 1996). The eel in the drawing corresponds precisely with an engraving of the same creature, in reverse, on a plate in the third volume of Thomas Pennant's "British Zoology," a substantively illustrated tome depicting the birds and animals of Britain which was published in 1761.