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C1871
The Wombat. (Phascolomys Wombat)
Artist:
Harriet Scott (1830 - 1907)
First reported sighting February 1797, after the ship Sydney Cove ran aground on Clarke Island in February 1797, the crew of the salvage ship, Francis, discovered wombats on the island. A live animal was taken back to Port Jackson. Governor John Hunter … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
The Wombat. (Phascolomys Wombat)
Date:
C1871
Artist:
Harriet Scott (1830 - 1907)
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Lithograph, hand coloured.
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1871
Description:
First reported sighting February 1797, after the ship Sydney Cove ran aground on Clarke Island in February 1797, the crew of the salvage ship, Francis, discovered wombats on the island. A live animal was taken back to Port Jackson. Governor John Hunter later sent the animal’s corpse to Joseph Banks at the Literary and Philosophical Society to verify that it was a new species.
Naming 26 January 1798
‘We saw several sorts of dung of different animals, one of which Wilson called a Whom-batt, which is an animal about 20 inches high, with short legs and a thick body…’ Bargo, N.S.W. John Price.
First detailed description 25 August 1798 Letter from Hunter to Joseph Banks.
Common names Common Wombat, Naked-nosed Wombat, Coarse-haired Wombat, Island Wombat, Tasmanian Wombat & Forest Wombat.
Modern binomial name Vombatus ursinus
First described Shaw 1800
Distribution SA, VIC, TAS, NSW & QLD.
Reference The Mammals of Australia, Strahan, 2nd edition. Page: 204-205, ill.204
From Kreft’s, Mammals of Australia
Biography:
Helena Forde (1832-1910) (nee Scott) and her sister Harriet Scott (1830-1907)
Were born in the Rocks area of Sydney to Harriet Calcott, daughter of an ex-convict, and Alexander Walter Scott, a wealthy man who would become known in the colony as an entomologist, grazier and entrepreneur. Helena and Harriet (known as the Scott sisters) were two of 19th century Australia’s most prominent natural history illustrators and possibly the first professional female illustrators in the country.
In 1846, Harriet and Helena, then aged 16 and 14, moved from Sydney to the isolated Ash Island in the Hunter River estuary with their mother, Harriet Calcott, and father, entomologist and entrepreneur Alexander Walker Scott.
There, surrounded by unspoilt native vegetation and under the inspiring tutelage of their artistic father, their shared fascination with the natural world grew. For almost 20 years, the sisters lived and worked on the island, faithfully recording its flora and fauna, especially the butterflies and moths.
The sisters continued to draw and paint commercially for the rest of their lives. Harriet drew botanical illustrations for the 1879, 1884 and 1886 editions of the Railway Guide to New South Wales, and they both executed designs for Australia’s first Christmas cards in 1879. Harriet died at Granville NSW in 1907 and Helena in 1910.
Reference; Australian Museum.
