A View of the Vivarium, constructed principally with large masses of the Rock of Gibraltar, in the garden of Joshua Brookes Esq.

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Very Rare. There is a copy at the John Soane’s Museum and another - coloured by hand - in the London Metropolitan Archives. The British Museum have George Scharf’s original drawing. A remarkable privately printed illustration of Joshua Brooke’s extraordinary menagerie in the garden of his house and home of his collection of anatomical and zoological specimens, the so-called Brookesian Museum. The print is partly an insight into the astonishing life and collection assembled by Brooks but also a poignant tribute as it was published just months after he was forced to sell the majority of his specimens and artefacts due to financial constraints. The image shows a smartly dressed man and woman examining the “vivarium” in the garden at Brookes’ house. A large ornamental mound is depicted (said to be constructed, “principally with large Masses of the Rock of Gibraltar”) on which various exotic (live) animals are posed including a large owl, a tortoise, a wild cat, and various birds (one of which is clearly chained to the rock.) Water spurts in a fountain from the top of the mound and flows through the stone head of a crocodile into a large shell below. In a grotto behind the couple is a memento mori tableau comprised of a skull, cross and hour glass Joshua Brookes (1761-1833) studied anatomy under William Hunter and set up teaching the discipline from his house in Blenheim Street, London. Brookes - who was “completely devoted to anatomy” - taught thousands of students and offered le

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