Description
George Edwards' A Natural History of Uncommon Birds and Gleanings of Natural History
These lifelike hand-colored engravings are from the work entitled A Natural History of Uncommon Birds by George Edwards. Edwards, often referred to as the "Father of British Ornithology," took great care in etching the original drawings and personally supervising the coloring in order to assure accuracy in the finished product. The 4-volume work was published in 1743-1751. In the following years, from 1758-1764, he produced three supplementary volumes originally entitled Gleanings of Natural History. The two series are often considered one work today. In the seven volumes are contained engravings and descriptions of more than 600 subjects which had not before been illustrated or described. He also added a general index which was later completed with Linnaean names supplied by Linnaeus personally, with whom Edwards often corresponded.
Demand for this work was so great that from 1749-1776, German engraver and art dealer, Johann Michael Seligmann (1720-1762) re-engraved the Edwards plates in Nuremburg. Seligmann also re-engraved plates from respected ornithologist Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands and bound them along with Edwards' work. This nine-volume release exposed Continental Europe to the works of Catesby and Edwards and was so popular that it appeared in several editions. These prints are from the Seligmann edition. They are on fine chain linked paper. They are folio size and measure approximately 10 3/4 by 17".