Images from the First Colour Publication on Fish

Images from the First Colour Publication on Fish, originally published in 1719, with a second edition in 1754, lays claim to being the earliest known publication of color images of fish—in this case, those of the waters of the East Indies. This wonderful book is the creation of Louis Renard, a publisher, bookseller, and spy for the British Crown. Across two volumes, the book contains 100 plates bearing 460 hand-colored engravings—a total of 415 fishes, 41 crustaceans, two stick insects, a dugong and, in a final foldout, a solitary mermaid. The engravings were supposedly based on drawings from life by the artist Samuel Fallours (active 1703–20). The images in the first volume tend to be fairly realistic, but many in the second stray somewhat into the realm of the fantastic, despite Renard’s ardent claims of authenticity.