Lot of 7 Bird Prints

Lot of 7 Bird Prints
Two engravings from Brown including
Great Ceylonese Eared Owl
Crested Cardinal

This originally hand-colored engraving is from Peter Brown's New Illustrations of Zoology, Containing fifty coloured plates of new, curious, and non-descript birds, with a few quadrupeds, reptiles, and insects. Together with a short and scientific description of the same. The title reads in French, Nouvelles Illustrations de Zoologie, Contenant Cinquante Planches Enluminées d'Oiseaux Curieux, Et Qui Non Étés Jamais Descrits, Et Quelques de Quadrupèdes, de Reptiles Et d'Insectes, Avec de Courtes Descriptions Systématiques). This is the first edition published in London by Benjamin Wright in 1776. The engravings were printed by William Bowyer and John Nichols.

The engravings will typically include a text page that features titles and text in parallel French and English. Most of the engravings from the work also show the signature P. Brown or Peter Brown. Some of the plates from it are dated to early 1775.

Brown based his drawings upon the collections of Marmaduke Tunstall, Thomas Pennant, the Royal Museum, and the Royal Society. His work also included 20 plates based upon drawings by Pieter Cornelis de Bevere, a native of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), who observed the collection of John Gideon Loten, Ceylon's Dutch East India administrator. Thomas Pennant contributed most of the text for the work. There are animals illustrated in the work from South Carolina, Florida, Surinam, Brazil, Jamaica, Angola, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Java.


Two Toucan engravings from Martinet & Buffon:

This magnificent, copperplate engraving featured here displays remarkable, original hand-coloring. It is from Francois Martinet's work with Buffon Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The work was published between 1765 and 1780 by Edme Louis Daubenton in France. Each plate features a delicate yellow border, which many believe led to the development of French matting. Each plate is on fine chain-linked, watermarked paper.

Martinet was a prominent ornithological artist of the 1700s. He work closely with Count Georges-Louis Leclerc du Buffon on Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The work is considered one of the most influential bird books of all time. Martinet also created work for Marmontel, Voltaire, and Philidor.


Fringilline Lory from Mivart & Keulemans:

This hand-colored lithograph is A Monograph of the Lories, or Brush-tongued Parrots. The work was authored by St. George Jackson Mivart and the celebrated John Gerrard Keulemans provided the images. This first edition, first issue was published in London by R. H. Porter in 1896.

Keulemans is one of the most respected bird artists whose images were noted for their fine detail. He contributed to some of the best known ornithological works including those of Elliot, Buller, Dresser, and The Ibis.

A Monograph of the Lories, according to Sacheverell Sitwell (writing in Fine Birds Books), included Keulemans 'best work'. The artist shows a masterful grasp of composition, balancing the need to show the birds in characteristic pose, whilst giving the maximum amount of information about the beautiful plummage that is so typical of the Loriidae family, but without losing sight of the importance of retaining the harmony of the image as a whole.

The author, Mivart, describes the Loriidae family as 'a very attractive group of rather small birds' varying 'from the size of a Turtle-Dove to about that of a Sparrow', and consisting 'of 75 more or less distinct species. The family is remarkable for its brilliancy and gay coloration', and its friendliness: 'Some of them will spontaneously approach human dwellings, and most of them make excellent pets'. Their feeding habits are a special feature: 'The lories are very choice feeders, living as they do on the nectars and pollen of flowers. Their tongue is very remarkable, as it is formed as a kind of brush, which is no doubt destined to extract the nectar'.

Cf. Fine Bird Books (1990) p.94; cf.T.Keulemans & J.Coldewey. Feathers to Brush p.64; cf.Nissen IVB 640; cf.Wood p.468; cf.Zimmer p.439


Mottled Owl, Lark, Creeper, & Warbler. 19
Hawk, Chuck-wills-widow, & Warblers. 54
From Wilson:

This exceptional originally hand-colored engraving is from Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology; or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States; Plates Engraved and Colored from Original Drawings Taken from Nature. This edition was published in 1871 in Philadelphia by Porter & Coates.

Alexander Wilson is known as the “Father of American Ornithology.” He spent a decade traversing the Eastern United States studying the birds and discovered 26 previously unknown species. Wilson’s work, American Ornithology, was the first focused on only American birds. Scientist and historian Dr. Elliott Coues noted of Wilson's work, "Perhaps no other work on ornithology of equal extent is equally free from error, and its truthfulness is illuminated by a spark of the 'fire divine'."

Wilson drew most of the birds for the work himself and employed Alexander Lawson and John G. Warnicke for the engraving. Wilson died in 1813 and his friend George Ord made it to press. Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Napoleon's nephew, who took refuge in America after his defeat, undertook the supplement to the work, which was completed in 1833.

Frank L. Burns, in his bibliography of Wilson, writing of the present edition, notes that it is "a reprint of Ord's fine 1828-29 edition, with the interpolation of Baird's Catalogue of North American Birds, reprinted from the 8vo edition of 1858, and the addition of Bonaparte's work. The original plates of Wilson's work were purchased at a cost of $1700, but as Bonaparte's beautiful plates had been melted and sold for old copper, resource was made to photography and electrotyping to reproduce the latter." (rank L. Burns, "Alexander Wilson. [Part] VII: Biographies, Portraits, and a Bibliography of the Various Editions of his Works")


Paper Size: ~ 9" by 11 1/2"
~ 9" by 12 1/8"
~ 9 1/4" by 12 1/4"
~ 13 3/4" by 17"

The work is in very good to excellent condition. There may be a few minor imperfections to be expected with age. Please review the image carefully for condition and contact us with any questions.
~ 9" by 11 1/2"
~ 9" by 12 1/8"
~ 9 1/4" by 12 1/4"
~ 13 3/4" by 17"