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The Emperor or Imperial Angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator) was known in the eighteenth century as the "Emperor of Japan". This portrait, showing the blue and gold stripes of the adult (juveniles are black and white) is from one of the most magnificently illustrated icthyologies ever published, Marcus Eliezar Bloch's Ictyologie ou histoire naturelle ... des poissons. (Berlin, 1785-97). Many of the 432 hand-colored etched plates are heightened with silver or gold to emulate the sheen of the fishes's scales. Thanks to the generosity of numerous donors, including Frederick the Great of Prussia, the author, who also drew many of the illustrations, was able to acquire specimens from America and the Far East as well as Europe.
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