| Antique Print Monkey Ape Art - Natural History Print A beautiful chromolithograph from a British Victorian natural history book. The quality of the illustrations is superb, some of the best of the period. A wonderful image of a family of baboons foraging for food among the rocks.
'All baboons are confined to Africa and the countries lying on the north of the Red Sea, so that they are totally absent from the Oriental Region. Next to the Man-like Apes, the baboons include the largest members of the Primates, some of the species being as large as a pointer dog… The canine form of countenance led the ancient Greeks and Romans to apply the name Cynocephali (dog-headed) to these animals… The great size of the head, coupled with their general bodily conformation, renders all the baboons much less capable of assuming and maintaining the erect posture than any of the other Old World monkeys. They are, indeed, accustomed to go almost invariably on all-fours; and when on tolerably flat ground can gallop at a pace that requires a horse to overtake them.' (1894) |
