Gilbert Henry Raynor, the cream of the Gooseberries.
Jan 17, 2016 10:41:47 GMT
deliasfanatic and cabintom like this
Post by nomad on Jan 17, 2016 10:41:47 GMT
Gilbert Henry Raynor, the cream of the Gooseberries.
Gilbert Henry Raynor (1854-1929) is best known for his breeding experiments with the Gooseberry or Magpie Moth, Abraxes grossulariata. Raynor became interested in entomology at sixteen, he read classics at Cambridge and on leaving university he traveled to Australia where he worked for a time as a teacher. On returning to Britain, he presented his Australian lepidoptera collection to the BMNH. He became a classic's teacher at Ely and later at Brentwood before being ordained. For a third of his life he was the rector of Hazeleigh, a hamlet near Malden in Essex.
Raynor was a genial and a helpful man of a kind disposition and with his experiments with A. grossulariata he achieved a small but definite place in the history of science. Raynor first began rearing A. grossulariata in 1899 and obtained larvae from many parts of England. The study of variation within species had become fashionable with amateurs partly because of the influence of J.W. Tutt.
Raynor became friends with the Mendelian geneticist Leonard Doncaster (1877-1920) who studied the variation of A. grossulariata being produced by the lepidopterist. Studying A. grossulariata bred by Raynor, Doncaster discovered Sex linkage within lepidoptera for the first time. Later on his retirement to Brampton, Raynor worked with the Hon Huia Onslow (1890 -1922) the founder of biochemical genetics.
While Raynor was the rector of Hazeleigh, his friend Miss C. Everlyn Croxton wrote " A peep into his study would reveal the life cycle of many rare butterflies and moths, which he bred with much success"
In 1907 Raynor presented two cabinet drawers of his finest A. grossulariata aberrations to the Cambridge Zoological Museum. He then sold his entire lepidoptera collection in the same year at auction. Raynor's collection sold for £487 pounds which included £200 pounds being payed for 170 fine A. grossulariata aberrations.
J.W. Tutt in 1907 wrore " We never saw such a jam of gooseberries at a Stevens Room when Mr Raynor's collection was sold. Nor were there wanting samples of the gooseberry fool, mellowed though they were by some of that cream, which regards these fine aberrations as matters of scientific interest and not, as so many say postage stamps" The highest paid for a single specimen of A. grossulariata was £6. 10 for an aberration melanozana, a large sum during those days.
After the first dispersal of the Raynor collection, he continued to breed A. grossulariata till the end of his life. Raynor held twelve insect sales spread over a forty year period, with most of his sales consisting of varieties of the Magpie Moth. L. H. Newman who offered a selection of these rare Raynor aberrations, stated in his ad, that the market will not be flooded by them, and they would remain desirable objects because the Rev Raynor had stated in his will that all his A grossulariata specimen stock should be burnt, which was duly carried out by his daughter upon his death. Just before Raynor's death, all the breeding stock of these rare strains of A. grossulariata was lost, it has been said that it was by deliberate design, so that existing specimens would not lose their value. J.M. Chalmers Hunt wrote of Raynor that " He appears moreover, to have been of a somewhat reticent disposition and one suspects that much of his knowledge of the genetics of this species and breeding technique accompanied to the grave".
I have seen one other fine selection of Raynor's A. grossulariata aberrations in a private collection but nothing quite prepared me for the extent of his aberrations when I recently viewed the Charles Bartlett collection held by the Bristol City Museum. They are just magnificent.
Charles Bartlett's aberrations of A. grossulariata bred by Raynor.
Gilbert Henry Raynor (1854-1929) is best known for his breeding experiments with the Gooseberry or Magpie Moth, Abraxes grossulariata. Raynor became interested in entomology at sixteen, he read classics at Cambridge and on leaving university he traveled to Australia where he worked for a time as a teacher. On returning to Britain, he presented his Australian lepidoptera collection to the BMNH. He became a classic's teacher at Ely and later at Brentwood before being ordained. For a third of his life he was the rector of Hazeleigh, a hamlet near Malden in Essex.
Raynor was a genial and a helpful man of a kind disposition and with his experiments with A. grossulariata he achieved a small but definite place in the history of science. Raynor first began rearing A. grossulariata in 1899 and obtained larvae from many parts of England. The study of variation within species had become fashionable with amateurs partly because of the influence of J.W. Tutt.
Raynor became friends with the Mendelian geneticist Leonard Doncaster (1877-1920) who studied the variation of A. grossulariata being produced by the lepidopterist. Studying A. grossulariata bred by Raynor, Doncaster discovered Sex linkage within lepidoptera for the first time. Later on his retirement to Brampton, Raynor worked with the Hon Huia Onslow (1890 -1922) the founder of biochemical genetics.
While Raynor was the rector of Hazeleigh, his friend Miss C. Everlyn Croxton wrote " A peep into his study would reveal the life cycle of many rare butterflies and moths, which he bred with much success"
In 1907 Raynor presented two cabinet drawers of his finest A. grossulariata aberrations to the Cambridge Zoological Museum. He then sold his entire lepidoptera collection in the same year at auction. Raynor's collection sold for £487 pounds which included £200 pounds being payed for 170 fine A. grossulariata aberrations.
J.W. Tutt in 1907 wrore " We never saw such a jam of gooseberries at a Stevens Room when Mr Raynor's collection was sold. Nor were there wanting samples of the gooseberry fool, mellowed though they were by some of that cream, which regards these fine aberrations as matters of scientific interest and not, as so many say postage stamps" The highest paid for a single specimen of A. grossulariata was £6. 10 for an aberration melanozana, a large sum during those days.
After the first dispersal of the Raynor collection, he continued to breed A. grossulariata till the end of his life. Raynor held twelve insect sales spread over a forty year period, with most of his sales consisting of varieties of the Magpie Moth. L. H. Newman who offered a selection of these rare Raynor aberrations, stated in his ad, that the market will not be flooded by them, and they would remain desirable objects because the Rev Raynor had stated in his will that all his A grossulariata specimen stock should be burnt, which was duly carried out by his daughter upon his death. Just before Raynor's death, all the breeding stock of these rare strains of A. grossulariata was lost, it has been said that it was by deliberate design, so that existing specimens would not lose their value. J.M. Chalmers Hunt wrote of Raynor that " He appears moreover, to have been of a somewhat reticent disposition and one suspects that much of his knowledge of the genetics of this species and breeding technique accompanied to the grave".
I have seen one other fine selection of Raynor's A. grossulariata aberrations in a private collection but nothing quite prepared me for the extent of his aberrations when I recently viewed the Charles Bartlett collection held by the Bristol City Museum. They are just magnificent.
Charles Bartlett's aberrations of A. grossulariata bred by Raynor.
