“The Hare and the Rabbit” Original Victorian Benjamin Hawkins Print

"THE HARE and RABBIT"
Designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894) 
Published by Thomas Varty (c.1797-1856)  
Original lithograph printed in colours  
Printed by J. Graf 
London, Circa 1850

Measures:-
28.3 cm x 33 cm (image)
41.7 cm x 47.3 cm (framed)

Lettered within the plate "Designed and Drawn on Stone by W. Hawkins" / "Published by Thomas Varty, 31, Strand, London" / "J. Graf Printer to Her Majesty."

A delightful Victorian print with a central image of a hare and two rabbits around which are arranged nine vignettes with various images relating to these species of leporidae. These vignettes include:-
 ⦾ The Hutch
 ⦾ Coursing 
 ⦾ The Present 
 ⦾ The Skin Dealer
 ⦾ The Hatter
 ⦾ For Food
 ⦾ The Warren 
 ⦾ Fur Dress
 ⦾ The Rabbit Seller

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, the illustrator of this print, had a fascinating career as an artist, naturalist and curator. He was a member of the Society of Arts, a fellow of the Linnean Society and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. He was appointed assistant superintendent of the Great Exhibition of 1851 but is, perhaps, best known today as the sculptor of the 33 life-size concrete models of extinct dinosaurs which were unveiled in the Crystal Palace Park in 1854 - the first ever life-sized models of extinct animals. In 1868 he travelled to Philadelphia, U.S.A. to create an armature to display the remains of a Hadrosaurus specimen, making it the world's first mounted dinosaur skeleton.

Scarce. Not in British Museum. See Plate 14 V&A E.302-1901.