3 Gouaches With Heraldic Decoration Genealogy With Coats Of Arms By Joan Loten, 18th Century

Set of 3 gouaches with heraldic decoration from the 18th century. A gouache is decorated on the edges with 16 coats of arms on either side of the central coat of arms. Entirely hand-painted with extreme finesse worthy of a miniaturist. Coats of arms with swans, griffins, shields with thistles, sheep and fleur-de-lis.... In the center, large coat of arms of the family of Joan Gideon Loten. Very good general condition, very slight wear. Rare documents from a family from the Netherlands. Superb quality of execution. Very fresh colors: royal blue and soft green... Gold leaf. Letters in Indian ink. 20th century frame made by Gerbrands in Utrecht. 1 frame: 46.5 x 37 cm. 1 view: 37.4 x 26.5 cm. 2 frames: 43.4 x 32.6 cm. 2 views: 27.5 x 37.5 cm For information: Joan Gideon Loten (born May 16, 1710 – died February 25, 1789) was a Dutch colonial administrator and naturalist, governor of Dutch Ceylon from 1752 to 1757. He studied at the University of Utrecht and arrived in India in 1732 as a member of the Dutch East India Company. First Governor of Makassar (1744-1750), he was appointed Governor of Batavia, Ceylon and the Celebes archipelago on September 10, 1752, a position he held until March 17, 1757. In Colombo, he collected numerous zoological and botanical specimens that Pieter Cornelius de Bevere and Peter Brown painted and drew, a collection that was later entrusted to the Natural History Museum in London. Returning to the Netherlands in 1758, he settled in London in 1759, where he remained for twenty-two years, but was forced to leave the country in 1781 after the outbreak of the Anglo-Dutch Wars. He then resettled in Utrecht, where he ended his life. He is buried in the Jacobikerk, and a monument in his honor was erected by Thomas Bank in 1795 in Westminster Abbey. A species of bird is named after him: the Loten Sunbird. An inventory of his natural history drawings is in the London Natural History Museum and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem—to this day a valuable treasure trove of 18th-century natural history from Sri Lanka and Indonesia.