Illustrations of Chinese fishes, reptiles, cephalopods and crustaceans

Illustrations of over 300 fishes, as well as a number of reptiles, cephalopods and crustaceans, most of them found in seas and rivers of China, others in Japan, the Indian archipelago, Australasia, America and Europe. Their names are given in Chinese characters with a transcription. P. Bleeker added his own nomenclature. The updated nomenclature by Dr. Martien J.P. van Oijen (Naturalis, Leiden) may be found at http://wereldaanboeken.ub.rug.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hs-433-chinese-fishes-captions-lijst-van-oijen-numeriek.pdf It is not known whether this collection of illustrations was commissioned by Senn van Basel or that he acquired it as a ready-made set. A similar set is part of, e.g., the John Reeves Collection in The National History Museum, London. Around 1870, the collection was transferred to the University Library from the Cabinet of Natural History of the University, to which it had been presented by M. J. (Magdalenus Jacobus) Senn van Basel (Groningen 1808-1863 Delft). He started his career in the Dutch Indies as a merchant in Batavia and was appointed consul of the Netherlands in Kanton, China (1835). Later he became Receiver-General in Semarang, Java, an office from which he was discharged in 1848.