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Rhino Resource Center

The world's largest online rhinoceros library dedicated to assisting research and conservation efforts globally.

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Thier-reich series

1309797191

In mid-May of 1748 Clara was shown in Augsburg where the artist Johann Elias Ridinger made six drawings of her. Two were made into hand colored etchings and published by his son Martin Elias in 1768, a year after his father’s death. The Thier-reich or The Colored Animal Kingdom was comprised of 127 prints, probably issued in ten installments by subscription. The plates measured ca. 31.5 x 21.5 cm. The two rhinoceros prints were meant to show the then only known species; Indian and African, though only the horns from the African rhino were in circulation. Assuming that the horns were the only difference in the two species, Martin Elias simply added a second horn to his father’s drawing to represent the African rhino.

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