Scharf, George 1788-1860 :Reptiles restored, the remains of which are to be found in a fossil state in Tilgate Forest, Sussex / G. Scharf del 1833. This served as a sketch for a picture 3 yards long. Iguanodon, calculated from the remains to have been 100 feet long; Monitor; Megalosaurus; Plesosaurus.

An imaginative reconstruction of fauna from the age of dinosaurs. The creature on the left is the iguanodon, whose bones were discovered by Gideon Mantell. There is a central river, with tortoises and a crocodile-like creature, a pleisosaurus swimming and a megalosaurus (or hylaeosaurus) on the far bank, three large white wading birds and a monitor lizard in the background, along with palm-like trees and other primitive plants similar to ferns and cacti.

The watercolour sketch for Scharf's three-yard Mantellian painting, Reptiles restored, of 1833. The larger work may have hung in Gideon Mantell's museum. The first known rendering of extinct icythosaurs in colour

Inscriptions: Recto - beneath image - title in ink with pencil additions on the sides and below to identify the animals shown.

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Watercolour and pencil with scraping out 225 x 316 mm on sheet 311 x 391 mm