California Birds – Northern California Honeyeater & Port Français Thrush, c.1798

Name: California Birds – Northern California Honeyeater & Port Français Thrush, c.1798
Brand: La Perouse
SKU: BG-14129-27, -28
Price: 490 USD
Availability: InStock

$490

€440 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1798
Maker: La Perouse
Kind: Birds, Plants & Natural History
Size: 42.4 × 27.5 cm (16.7 × 10.8 in)
Condition: Good. Good condition overall. Light, even age toning to the paper with occasional small spots and faint handling marks, consistent with age. Plates are cleanly printed with clear details and full margins. No restoration observed.
Period: The Early Republic
Places: Alaska, California
Reference: BG-14129-27, -28

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

Two North Pacific birds on separate copper-engraved plates, shown side by side: "Promerops de la Californie Septentrionale" and "Merle du Port des Français". Each is an uncolored engraving with a ruled border and a French caption beneath the image.

The left plate shows a long-billed bird perched on a bare branch, its curved bill, pale underside and barred tail drawn with careful shading. The right plate shows a thrush-like bird with spotted wings turned in profile on a weathered branch. Neither has a background, in the manner of natural history plates that put the specimen first.

Port des Français is Lituya Bay on the coast of Alaska, visited by the French expedition of La Pérouse in 1786, and the old description connects both plates with that voyage's natural history. The bird from "northern California" and the one from the Alaskan anchorage are paired here because they come from the same expedition and plate series.

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