The Booby
Mark Catesby, 1731–1743
$82
Print check at 8 x 10 in: 204 dpi, excellent. Trimmed 7% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $24.80 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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The booby earned its unflattering English name from sailors who found the bird absurdly easy to catch by hand, showing little of the wariness other seabirds had learned around humans — a trait that made it a reliable emergency food source on long ocean voyages and, eventually, a byword for foolishness. Catesby shows the bird perched on a rocky outcrop with a distant ship under sail, a rare instance in his Natural History of an explicit human presence sharing the frame, alongside a separate anatomical study of the booby's distinctive hooked beak and skull structure at upper left. What to notice: the bird's oversized, fully webbed feet, splayed flat across the rock in the lower study, tell the real story — a seabird built for diving and swimming, distinctly out of its element on solid ground, which is exactly why sailors found it so easy to walk right up to.
- Maker
- Mark Catesby
- Date
- 1731–1743
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit
- Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00286
| Picture | 8 x 10 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 9.6 x 11.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 x 10 in | 204 | Excellent | Trimmed 7% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 8 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 11 x 14 in | 148 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 16 in | 136 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 12 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 16 x 20 in | 102 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 16 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 18 x 24 in | 90 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 24 x 30 in | 68 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
| 30 x 40 in | 54 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 36 x 48 in | 45 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 60 in | Wrong shape: a 10% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,636 x 2,200 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 69, lights 225 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 42.14
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $24.80, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
Cabinet of Curiosities
The old world’s book of wonders, for your wall.
All 69 pieces from Cabinet of Curiosities
