Animals Drawn from Nature and Engraved in Aqua-tinta is a book written and illustrated by Charles Catton the younger and published in London in 1788. It is a very early example of a work including hand-coloured aquatints. The thirty-six animals described, all mammals except for the crocodile, were from both the New World and the Old World. At the time Catton had not travelled abroad so he drew native British animals as well as exotics kept in captivity in Britain.
Catton was by profession an artist who was taught his skills by his father, also called Charles Catton, who is known in the history of art as Charles Catton the elder.
The elder Catton (1728âÂÂ1798) was apprenticed to a coach builder at a time when it was fashionable to have heraldic coats of arms painted on the sides of the coaches. He became skilled in the artistic part of his trade and was well known for his ability at painting animals supporting coats of arms in a naturalistic way rather than heraldically. As well as becoming coach painter to George III he became an accomplished portraitist and a founder member of the Royal Academy.
Charles Catton the younger (1756âÂÂ1819) was apprenticed to his father, working closely to his style, and was trained at the Royal Academy schools. He exhibited regularly at the academy (1775âÂÂ1800) â landscapes, animals and topographical watercolours â and was an occasional scene painter at Covent Garden Theatre (1781âÂÂ1794). He toured Great Britain making paintings and sketches, many of which were later engraved by others but he was a skilled engraver himself. He did not leave Britain until he emigrated to the United States in 1804.
Shortly after "Animals" was published he contributed some illustrations for John White's 1790 Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales.
Animals was first published in 1788 in London by I. and J. Taylor and then again in 1825 in New Haven by H. Howe, a local bookseller and publisher. Thirty-six animals are described, each having a whole-page illustration and a page of text â 74 pages in all. The first edition is upright folio (2ð), and the prints are . The text and most of the illustrations are orientated sideways so the pages are in landscape format. The binding is calfskin with gilt embellishments and the spine is in seven panels with a morocco leather title label in the second panel. The endpapers are with spot and veined marbling.
The ÃÂsterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna has placed page images of its first edition online. The book is also hosted on the Internet Archive. and a proofread text version is on Wikisource at .
In the first edition the aquatints are coloured and, according to Sarah Prideaux (1909)
The "thick yellow varnish" referred to by Prideaux is very evident in the scan available. An example of the American 1825 edition is described as having its images uncoloured.
When describing prints, "hand-coloured" means that a monochrome print has been painted afterwards. This is to be distinguished from "colour-printed" which means that the printing itself was in colour. Colour printing could be produced either by painting the plate carefully with differently coloured inks and then making a single pressing, or by making a number of plates, engraved appropriately for each colour, and making sequential impressions. These techniques may be combined in a single illustration. An example of the British 1788 edition of Animals is described as having "hand-coloured aquatint plates by and after Catton, heightened with white and gum arabic." meaning that the illustrations were coloured afterwards and the reference to gum arabic further suggests that this what is meant. According to Baynton-Williams (1990)
In 1791 the book was on sale for ã3 17s 0d () and ã9 5s 0d (ã) if the plates were coloured, but by 1831 the inclusive price was only ã3 13s 6d (ã) with the recommendation "Catton was an eminent coach-painter and a very superior draftsman. The above work is scarce in any state, but particularly so in colours and varnish, in which state the plates have the appearance of oil paintings." In 2006 a British first edition sold at Christie's for ã3,600 ($6,401 then) and in 2016 an American edition sold for $1,845 (ã1,494 then).
Before Catton's book had been published, Thomas Bewick, who had been preparing his own book with monochrome woodcut engravings, A General History of Quadrupeds (1790), got into "a pitch of nervous curiosity" about the forthcoming competition. However, when he saw Catton's work he thought the prints were feeble and the book was considerably overpriced â when "Quadrupeds" was published in 1790 it was "greeted with delight". What Catton had called an "animal of the bear kind" (and what is now known as a sloth bear) made its appearance in Bewick's second, 1791, edition of "Quadrupeds" although it was not named in any way. At the end of the 18th century, it was controversial whether this creature was a bear-like sloth or a sloth-like bear, and the matter was still worthy of comment in Richard Owen's 1833 Zoological Magazine where Bewick is praised but Catton is given a slightly adverse review:
Bewick's engravings in Quadrupeds were not beyond all criticism. Bewick's brother John was dealing with the publishers and wrote to Thomas:
To remedy this sorry situation Bewick cut out part of his wood block and inserted a new piece of wood so that he could engrave a tail.
Despite the title of Catton's book the animals were not all drawn from nature and not even from life as his individual texts sometimes acknowledge.
Catton did not use Linnaean taxonomy and his descriptions were those of an artist experienced in careful observation, not of an experienced naturalist. Hence, except when he uses the same name as is extant (even if rather archaic), this section records what experienced naturalists have later claimed are the specific identifications (sometimes from first-hand knowledge) or what Catton himself said were other naturalists' identifications. No attempt is made here to make identifications based on Catton's physical or behavioural descriptions, or from his illustrations.
This is a partial list of people mentioned in the book.
The University of Delaware has information on coloured printing and colour printing.
Illustrations from a different example of the 1788 edition, once owned by the Duke of Gloucester.