* English School. Four watercolour drawings of big cats, circa 1828, 4 pen, black ink, pencil and watercolour drawings on cream wove paper, heightened with white bodycolour and gum Arabic, each with paper mount, inscribed in pencil with title: Young Lions (Cross’s Menagerie), Tiger (Zoological Society), Black Leopards (Zoological Sy.), and Jaguars (Zool. Socy), each with mount stain, sheet size 170 x 245 mm (6.7 x 9.7 ins) or slightly smaller, matching 20 th century white painted frames, glazedQty: (4)NOTESProvenance: Collection of Jack Webb (1923-2019), London. Given the handwritten captions to these drawings, they must have been executed around 1828 or 1829, as Edward Cross’s Menagerie, the first commercial zoological collection in England, which had been founded in 1773, closed in 1829. The Zoological Society of London founded the oldest zoological gardens in continual use in Regent’s Park in 1828. These unsigned drawings are therefore likely to have been made around the time of the opening of the Zoological Society’s exhibit.