George French Angas

Entomology: Coleoptera. 31 varieties of beetles native to Australia including Phoracantha gigas, Prionus and Anoplognathus viridiaeneus (King Christmas Beetle) with Pterostylis and Caladenia flowers.

George French Angas was born in 1822 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His Father, George Fife Angas, was a prominent merchant and banker and a leading figure in promoting the colonization of South Australia. Angas was something of a disappointment to his family, being more interested in drawing than banking. In 1843 he sailed to South Australia on one of his father's ships and spent the next two years travelling and sketching extensively in South Australia and New Zealand, holding exhibitions in Adelaide and Sydney.

Angas returned to England in 1846 to exhibit his drawings and solicit subscriptions for South Australia Illustrated and The New Zealanders Illustrated. These two grand, large folios works commenced publication simultaneously in 1846 and were each issued in ten parts at two-monthly intervals over 1846 and 1847. South Australia Illustrated was published by Thomas M'Lean. The work of transferring Angas's sketches to the stone was done by M'Lean's employees, who appear to have exerted considerable editorial control over the composition of some plates and to have imposed Victorian standards of delicacy on others. South Australia Illustrated is without question Angas's greatest and most accomplished work. His views of towns and scenery, of the Aborigines and of the flora and fauna offer an outstanding - if romantic - interpretation of the Australian landscape. It is a rare work, and one which has always been held in the highest esteem.