A WHITE BEAR, 1784

A rare original copper-plate engraving by Peter Mazell from a drawing by John Webber showing a polar bear on ice, from an account of Cook’s third and last voyage (Plate73); the bear was encountered on the 18th of July, 1779 off the coast of Alaska between present day Wainwright and Point Lay; such a white bear was obviously previously unknown to the crew of the ship and hence the need to record the apparent "new" species, and this was the first time an illustration of a polar bear had ever been seen

The engraving comes with extra wide margins with an image size of 17.8 x 24.1cm (7 x 9 1/2in) - presented in excellent condition on studio board with protective clear film