Victorian Wit at the Zoo — The Illustrated London News, 1881

A page of four wood engravings, published in The Illustrated London News in 1881, called Odd Sketches at the Zoological Gardens — a sequence of gently satirical drawings by one of the paper's staff artists, exploring the irresistible human tendency to detect uncanny resemblances between the animals on display and the visitors who come to observe them.

These four sketches depict sheep, paroots, seals and a man and dog with people looking like them at the zoo. The pair sharing, as the original caption wryly observes, “a kindred physiognomy, bred of their intimate association in the stable-yard.” It is a masterpiece of Victorian comic observation: affectionate, sharp-eyed, and entirely without malice.

The series drew on a long tradition of physiognomic humour — the idea, popularised by Lavater and later lampooned by Hogarth and Rowlandson, that character is written in the face. By the 1880s, such comparisons had become a staple of illustrated comic journalism, and The Illustrated London News brought its customary elegance and draughtsmanship to the genre. As the original text noted: “That one touch of nature which makes the whole world kin seems here to be multiplied into many diverse touches.”

• Publication: The Illustrated London News, London
• Date: 1881
• Series: Odd Sketches at the Zoological Gardens
• Subject: A groom and his bull-dog, sailor and seal, man and parrot and people and sheep outside the Zoological Society’s Gardens, Regent’s Park
• Medium: Original wood engraving
• Condition: Original antique print — age-toning consistent with period

  A rare and evocative piece of Victorian natural history and colonial African exploration art — ideal for framing and display.

  Scanned at 350 dpi

  Approximately 26 x 40 cm in size...11 x 15 inches

A wonderfully characterful piece for collectors of Victorian humour, zoological history, London social history, or animal art — and a conversation-starting addition to any wall.