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The Aeneas Butterfly

Order Item BSM-P79

$25.00

Captain Thomas Brown (1785-1862), was a British naturalist born in Perth, Scotland and was educated at the Edinburgh High School. After joining the Forfar and Kineardine Militia at the age of twenty, he was raised to rank of Captain in 1811. While quartered in Manchester, he became interested in nature. He purchased the Fifeshire flax mill after his regiment was disbanded. The mill burned down before he had the opportunity to insure it. Also a malacologist (studying mollusks), he began to write books about nature to earn a living. For twenty-two years beginning in 1840, he was curator of the Manchester Museum. Additionally, he became a fellow of the Linnean Society, a member of the Wernerian, Kirwanian, and Phrenological Societies. Of the several natural history books he wrote, some dealt with conchology (studying the shells of mollusks). There was a shell named after him called Zebina browniana.

Plate XIII, Papilio Aeneas. The Aeneas Butterfly. This rare and splendid butterfly is a native of Cochin China. It measures four inches and one eighth in breadth. The whole upper wing surface is black; in the centre is a large irregular bright green patch; the underwings each have five oblong-oval crimson spots. The body is black with a row of crimson spots on each side. There is a crimson triangular spot on the shoulders and the head and eyes are green.

This particular plate is an original hand-coloured engraving from "The Book of Butterfies, Sphinges, and Moths" by Captain Thomas Brown, Volume One (1834). This bright, vividly coloured plate measures approximately 4 X 6.5 inches. It is very clean for the age and has minor browing to the page edge and light foxing in the lower right corner which does not interfere with the frameable area. The engraved portion could be matted and/or framed to an area as small as 3 .5 inches square, or larger to include the plate number and name of the butterfly.

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