INDIAN ELEPHANT 1894 Mammal - Friedrich Specht VICTORIAN ENGRAVING

Original 1894 7 3/4 inch x 5 3/8 inch engraving titled INDIAN ELEPHANT.

The Indian elephant is one of the largest land mammals on Earth. The trunk of the Asian elephant has two finger-like structures at its tip that allow the animal to perform both delicate and powerful movements. Elephants have long, coarse hairs sparsely covering their body. Their skin is brown to dark gray. They have been very important to Asian culture for thousands of years - they have been domesticated and are used for transportation and to move heavy objects.

Engraved by Friedrich Specht (1839 - 1919). A German painter and natural history illustrator. He held his first exhibition at the Stuttgart Art Academy. He provided illustrations of animals and landscapes for a large number of zoology and veterinary science publications, notably for the first edition of Brehms Tierleben (1864–69) conceived by Alfred Edmund Brehm, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890—1907) and Richard Lydekker's Royal Natural History (1894–96).

This illustration is taken from ‘The Royal Natural History’ edited by Richard Lydekker and published by Frederick Warne & Co. London and New York, 1894.

The page size is 10 inch x 6 5/8 inch

The engraving is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.