Accuracy and Elegance in Cheselden’s Osteographia (1733)

Much of the charm of the Osteographia lies with the vignettes of the animal skeletons, which are frequently depicted in lifelike poses. A cat with an arched back is startled by a dog; a young, antlered deer stops suddenly and turns to the viewer; a crane picks up a fish with its beak, yielding the conceit of a skeleton bird seeking nourishment from the bones of a fish. Cheselden's comment concerning the skeleton of a bear indicates the care he took in the poses of the animal skeletons: "This skeleton being put together with stiff wires, I could not alter it into a properer posture" (ch. VIII). The pose of the chameleon skeleton, set on a branch with its tail wrapped around a twig, seen at the head of the fifth chapter, was adapted from an illustration first published by Charles Perrault in 1669.