"The Female Hottentot with natural Apron." A Khoisan woman with elongated labia that so fascinated...

"The Female Hottentot with natural Apron" A Khoisan woman with elongated labia that so fascinated Europeans. She wears a hat, animal skin, necklace, and bracelets, and carries a bow and arrows. Hand-colored copperplate engraving from a drawing by Johann Ihle from Ebenezer Sibly's "Universal System of Natural History" 1794. The prolific Sibly published his Universal System of Natural History in 1794~1796 in five volumes covering the three natural worlds of fauna, flora and geology. The series included illustrations of mythical beasts such as the sukotyro and the mermaid, and depicted sloths sitting on the ground (instead of hanging from trees) and a domesticated female orang utan wearing a bandana. The engravings were by J. Pass, J. Chapman and Barlow copied from original drawings by famous natural history artists George Edwards, Albertus Seba, Maria Sybilla Merian, and Johann Ihle. These volumes are extremely hard to find even with uncoloured plates, and very rare coloured. The hand-colouring on these copperplate engravings is particularly rich and intense.