b'194190190GEORGE BAIRD SHAW (17511813) Platypus Anatinuswatercolour on paper,inscribed with title andThe Duck-billed Platypus,11 x 13cmPROVENANCEChristies, Works on Paper, Melbourne, 12/11/1990, Lot No. 361.Shaw provided an almost identical sketchnames of several of the common and best for the title page of his General Zoologyknown Australian animals, including the of Systematic Natural History.Vol.1, Part 1.platypus, echidna, wombat, budgerigar Mammalia published in London in 1800. and black snake. He provided the well-Shaws life as a professional naturalistknown generic name (Macropus) for the coincided with the early years of thecommon grey kangaroo. Shaw could not colonization of eastern Australia. Theconceal his scepticism when describing so colonists were very interested in theextraordinary a creature as the platypus, novel fauna which they encountered, andand was not entirely convinced that the specimens of the strange creatures werespecimen was not a fake. It was the only sent to Sir Joseph Banks and other savantsone known at the time and is still preserved in England. Many of the novelties camein the British Museum (Natural History).into the hands of Shaw and he published$2,0003,000the first descriptions with scientific'