Monstrous Seahorse in blue & silver filigree Victorian dress and Hygiene

and Hygiene

Hand embroidered lines imitate the folds of the skirt

is held by the Museum at FIT (accession 91

stitched by hand on 8x10 inch watercolour paper

Monstrous Seahorse in blue & silver filigree Victorian dress and HygieneYou are probably looking at this creature and thinking, Judith, thats clearly a Hippocampus, and you would be correct! But the book I found it in called it Equus marinus monstrosus, which translates as Monstrous seahorse. And who can resist a name like that? The book is the delightfully named Monstrorum historia, or History of Monsters, by Ulisse Aldrovandi; it dates from 1642. My monstrous seahorse is 4. 75 inches wide, stitched by hand on 5x7 inch