Monogrammist C.H.B., Dutch, late 17th/early 18th century

This drawing appears to be by an otherwise unrecorded member of the small group of natural history artists that flourished in the northern Dutch town of Hoorn in the latter part of the 17th century and the first decades of the 18th.  The founding father of this school was Johannes Bronckhorst, and his two most notable pupils and followers were Herman Henstenburgh and the latter's son, Anthonie, but it may well be that there were others, including members of the families of any of these three artists.  The initials, CHB, are written in a form familiar from the signed drawings of all three, and the initials themselves could also refer to either surname, although stylistically it seems more likely that C.H.B. was a Henstenburgh, rather than a Bronckhorst.