LABROIDEI: WHITE SPOTTED, MARBLE, GEOGRAPHIC, YELLOW BREASTED WRASSE print (Anampses melanurus, Amboinensis, Geographicus, Twistii)

These strikingly beautiful and rare chromolithographs of the wrasse of the Indo-Pacific Ocean are from the magnificent Atlas Ichthyologique by Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker. Published in Amsterdam from 1862-1878, it is regarded today as the greatest work of fishes of the nineteenth century and one of the finest ever produced. The plates were created after drawings by L. Speigler with superb colouring by C.W. Mieling and later by Emrik & Binger.  The prints are very rare as Bleeker notes in his biography that there were only sixty subscribers. (Ref. Boeseman 1983; Dean, Bibl.of Fishes vol.1 p130; Lamme 1973; Nissen ZBI, 409; Wood p244.)