No. 58. — 1907.] JOAN GIDEON LOTEN, F.R.S, 



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JOAN GIDEON LOTEN, F.R.S., 



the Naturalist Governor of Ceylon (1752-57), 

 and the Ceylonese Artist de Severe. 



In a catalogue entitled Bibliotheca Neerlando-Indica, issued 

 in 1883 by the well-known bookseller at the Hague, Martinus 

 Nijhoff, occurred the following entry (in French, which I 

 translate) : — 



2299. Fauna of the Indian Archipelago and of the Island of 

 Ceylon.— Collection of drawings in colours, representing birds, 

 mammifers, insects, &c, of the Indian Archipelago and Ceylon. 

 144 folio sheets in two portfolios, f. 300. 



These drawings of a really extraordinary beauty from living 

 animals [are ?] by a Sieur de Bevere, who, it would appear, was 

 in the service of Mr. J. G. Loten, who was in the service of the 

 East India Company from 1731 to 1757, successively as Commis- 

 sary at Bantam,* Governor of Ceylon, &c, and who retired later 

 to Fulham in England. Mr. de Bevere executed his drawings 

 from 1754 to 1781. f 



The collection is divided as follows : Birds, 101 sheets ; mammi- 

 fers, 5 sheets ; insects, 10 sheets ; fishes, &c, 14 sheets ; plants, 

 14 sheets. J 



Had the Ceylon Government had (as it ought to have) an 

 agent in England on the constant look-out for literary and 

 artistic treasures relating to the Island, the collection de- 

 scribed above would now form one of the most valuable exhibits 

 in the Colombo Museum. Now the opportunity is gone, per- 

 haps for ever, for in 1885 the collection was bought by Mr. 

 P. J. van Houten, now President of the Commission of the 

 Colonial Museum at Haarlem, who, at the annual meeting of 

 the council of the Museum in 1905, at which the paintings were 

 exhibited, gave some interesting details regarding their history, 



* It was after he had been twenty years in the Netherlands East 

 India Company's service, and had held several important posts, that 

 Loten was sent as Commissioner to the coast of Bantam. 



j- As Mr. van Houten shows, they were executed between 1754 and 

 1757. 



J This division differs from that of Mr. van Houten given below, 

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