| Description | Title of the folio states, "Drawings of fossil fishes in the collection of the Earl of Enniskillen made by Mr Dinkel for the use of Professor Agassiz."
Contains drawings and paintings of fossil fish principally from the collection William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, although there are some from Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton's cabinet, mostly by Joseph Dinkel, [1834]-1862. The drawings which pre-date 1844 were commissioned by Louis Agassiz as part of the research for his 'Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles' (1833-1843) and its follow up 'Monographie des Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Grès Rouge' (1844-1845) are generally unpublished. The later phase of drawings by Dinkel, were created between c.1848-1860s (see admin history).
Note on dates: the unpublished and undated Agassiz material by Dinkel has been given a wide date span of [1834-1844], however it may be that they date from the 1840s period as not all species have published images (names only are referenced in the text) or the images which are included appear to depict poorer specimens. |
| Administrative History | The series has its origins as the artwork commissioned by Louis Agassiz as part of the research for his 'Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles' (1833-1844) and its follow up 'Monographie des Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Grès Rouge' (1844-1845), however in order to help Agassiz defray the costs of such an expensive undertaking, the artist's time (and therefore the drawings themselves) were paid for by Sir Phillip Egerton and the Earl of Enniskillen on the understanding that they would become their property once the images were copied onto lithographic stones.
Although, the Egerton and Enniskillen drawings were supposed to revert back to the ownership of the two patrons, there were and are still a number of images from their collections in the other series connected with Agassiz's fossil fish works - LDGSL/613-615 - which had been donated to the Society by Sir Francis Egerton in 1843. In those series there are gaps on some of the sheets which appear to indicate 'missing' drawings, particularly in LDGSL/613, but as there are indications that these were images of the Egerton and Enniskillen collections, they were likely to be the drawings requested to be removed from the collection by Enniskillen in 1849 (see Council Minutes, 2 May 1849).
After Agassiz's departure for the USA in 1846, Egerton continued to commission Joseph Dinkel to draw specimens from both men's fossil cabinets (although there are a few images from other collections) to illustrate later scientific papers, most notably Egerton's 'Palichthyologic Notes' series which was published in the Society's 'Quarterly Journal' between 1848-1857 and his fossil fish descriptions in the 'Memoirs of the Geological Survey...illustrative of British Organic Remains', from 1852-1872, both intended as an addenda to Agassiz's fish works - and hence the continued use of the services of Agassiz's main artist. |