Title(s)

The Gordon African Collection : Men, reptiles, fishes

Object type

• album

Object number

RP-T-1914-17A

Inscriptions / marks

• annotation: ‘op sommige bladen’

Description

Album (III) met roodkleurig halfleer en roodgemarmerd plat, dorso met ribben en titel in goudopdruk. Goud-op-snee bovenkant. Hierin 54 opgeplakte tekeningen van mensen, vissen, reptielen en amfibieën in de Kaapprovincie. Getekend voor of tijdens vier expedities van 1777 t/m 1780 en van 1785-1786. Behorend bij een serie van 4 banden met verschillende subtitels.

Artist

• draughtsman: Robert Jacob Gordon (attributed to)
• draughtsman: Johannes Schumacher (possibly)

Dating

Oct-1777 - Mar-1786

Material

• paper
• deck paint
• ink
• pencil
• chalk

Technique

brush / brush / pen

Measurements

height 68 cm × width 50.5 cm × depth 2.5 cm
height c. 660 mm × width c. 480 mm

When

• 1777 - 1780
• 1785 - 1786

Where

• Afrika

Who

• James Cook

Credit line

• Purchased with the support of private collectors

Acquisition

purchase 1914

Copyright

Public domain

Parts

• A Xhosa (possibly Gonaqua) chieftan’s wife with an infant on her back (RP-T-1914-17-69)
• Mahote, chieftain of the Dange Xhosa (RP-T-1914-17-70)
• Man holding three assegais and a knobkerrie (RP-T-1914-17-71)
• Running man holding an assegai in his right hand and four assegais in his left (RP-T-1914-17-72)
• The kraal of “Captain” Coba (or Kobé), a chief of the Gqunukhwebe (RP-T-1914-17-73)
• Pusega, daughter of Coba (or Kobé), a chief of the Gqunukhwebe tribe (RP-T-1914-17-74)
• ‘Captain’ Coba (or Kobé), a chief of the Gqunukhwebe tribe, wearing the grenadiers helmet given him by Robert Jacob Gordon (RP-T-1914-17-75)
• A standing, probably Khoikhoi, woman, with tobacco-pipe and child (RP-T-1914-17-76)
• Man, probably of the AmaXhosa, wearing a leopard skin and holding a spear (RP-T-1914-17-77)
• Chieftans of the Namaqualand region (RP-T-1914-17-78)
• Karmoeb, Captain of the Namaqua Khoisan (RP-T-1914-17-79)
• Ruiter, a Gonaqua captain (RP-T-1914-17-80)
• Khoikhoi or Gonaqua woman with a child at the breast (RP-T-1914-17-81)
• The Gonaqua chieftain, Ruiter (RP-T-1914-17-82)
• Nomadic tribe with their possessions laden on an ox (RP-T-1914-17-83)
• Khoikhoi or San woman with her little boy (RP-T-1914-17-84)
• Khoikhoi man smoking a pipe (RP-T-1914-17-85)
• Burial of a Khoikhoi man, with spectators (RP-T-1914-17-86)
• Standing Khoikhoi woman (RP-T-1914-17-87)
• Man of the Khoikhoi with an ox-horn pipe in his hand (RP-T-1914-17-88)
• A Khoikhoi kraal with dancers and musicians (RP-T-1914-17-89)
• San-huishouden met vuur en kookpotten (RP-T-1914-17-90)
• Homestead of the so-called Strandlopers (San or Khoikhoi) just north of the Orange River’s mouth (RP-T-1914-17-91)
• A Tswana or Kora knife with its sheath (RP-T-1914-17-92)
• Grave of a Khoisan chieftain (RP-T-1914-17-93)
• Chersine angulata (Angulate tortoise) (RP-T-1914-17-94)
• Psammobates tentorius (Tent tortoise) (RP-T-1914-17-95)
• Homopus areolatus (Common padloper tortoise) (RP-T-1914-17-96)
• Testudo pardalis (Leopard tortoise) (RP-T-1914-17-97)
• Pelomedusa subrufa (African helmeted turtle) (RP-T-1914-17-98)
• Chamaeleo namaquensis (Namaqua chameleon) (RP-T-1914-17-99)
• Bradypodion pumilum in three poses (Cape dwarf chameleon) (RP-T-1914-17-100)
• Bradypodion pumilum (Cape dwarf chameleon) (RP-T-1914-17-101)
• Agama atra (Southern rock agama) (RP-T-1914-17-102)
• Agama hispida (Southern spiny agama) (RP-T-1914-17-103)
• Varanus albigularis (Rock monitor) (RP-T-1914-17-104)
• Bitis atropos (Berg adder) (RP-T-1914-17-105)
• Bitis cornuta (Hornsman adder) (RP-T-1914-17-106)
• Bitis caudalis (Horned adder) (RP-T-1914-17-107)
• Mugil cephalus (Flathead grey mullet) (RP-T-1914-17-108)
• Fish of the order Mugilidae (mullet) (RP-T-1914-17-109)
• Liza richardsonii (South African mullet) (RP-T-1914-17-110)
• Unidentified tropical fish (RP-T-1914-17-111)
• Labeo umbratus (Cape moggel) (RP-T-1914-17-112)
• Lithognathus lithognathus (White steenbras) (RP-T-1914-17-113)
• Coracinus capensis (Galjoen) (RP-T-1914-17-114)
• Clarias stappersii (catfish) (RP-T-1914-17-115)
• Cheilodactylus fasciatus (Redfingers) (RP-T-1914-17-116)
• Genypterus capensis (Kingklip) (RP-T-1914-17-117)
• Mola mola (Ocean sunfish) (RP-T-1914-17-118)
• Crab (probably of the Potamon genus) (RP-T-1914-17-119)
• Crab (probably of the Potamon genus) (RP-T-1914-17-120)
• Two beetles and a praying mantis (to be identified) (RP-T-1914-17-121)
• Beetles, chafers and grasshoppers (to be identified) (RP-T-1914-17-122)
• Beetles and Grasshopers (to be identified) (RP-T-1914-17-123)

• South Africa in 1777-95 : the Gordon Collection of unpublished contemporary watercolour drawings, Suppl., p. 5-6
• Een beeld van een land : Zuid-Afrika gezien door R.J. Gordon, tussen 1773 en 1795, Meile Dirk Haga
• Robert Jacob Gordon 1743-1795 : the man and his travels at the Cape, Patrick Cullinan
• The zoological exploration of southern Africa 1650-1790, Leendert Cornelis Rookmaaker
• Robert Jacob Gordon : Cape travels, 1777 to 1786, Maurice Boucher, Peter Edmund Raper, vol. 1 en 2
• Robert Jacob Gordon (1743-1795) en zijn bijdrage tot de zoölogie van de Kaap de Goede Hoop, Leendert Cornelis Rookmaaker, scriptie en Appendix, sectie IV, V en VI
• De Gordon Atlas : achttiende-eeuwse voorstellingen van het Zuidafrikaanse binnenland, Leendert Cornelis Rookmaaker
• http://www.uct.ac.za/depts/age/people/Gordon
• Rijksmuseum Kunstkrant 28 (mei-juni 2002), nr. 3 [enkele afbeeldingen]