Plate XXXXII (Gold crowned Thrush and Blue finch) Recueil de Divers Oiseaux etrangers ... Nuremberg 1768. Framed $825.00

Tab XXXXII  "La Grive couronne d’or et la Moucherolle bleue”

George Edwards was an ornithologist and bird artist whose most famous work, A Natural History…, was published between 1743 and 1764. It was a beautifully illustrated book in which Edwards presented his subjects in landscape backgrounds, an innovation at the time. The work was highly valued for its decorative plates and for the ornithological information it contained. In fact, demand was so strong that Johann Michael Seligmann (1720-1769) re-engraved the plates in Nuremberg and reissued A Natural History between 1749 and 1770 titled Collection of the diverse birds foreign and commom after the works of Edwards and Catesby. This engraving was included in that edition of the famous work. Seligmann added German and French titles and references to Linnaean forms of classification. Seligmann also re-engraved plates from Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands and bound them together with his re-engravings of Edwards’ work. The resulting natural history was so popular that it appeared in several editions and three languages during the 18th century. Handsome male and female Chinese pheasants perched on a tree.
Copperplate engraving on laid paper.
15 ¼ x 9 ½ inches sheet.
Archivally framed.
Engraving with perfectly preserved original color.