Hand-Colored Engraving of Diverse Bird Species from Histoire Naturelle, 1790

About this piece

Four birds on a single plate, an original copperplate engraving with hand coloring from the Histoire Naturelle (Ornithologie) of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, circa 1790. The plate is numbered "Pl. 189" at the upper right, signed "Benard Direxit" at the lower right, and lettered "Histoire Naturelle, Ornithologie" at the foot.

The sheet holds two ruled panels. In the upper panel, Fig. 1, "Le Roi des fourmilliers", is a long-legged brown bird with a pale patch at the eye, standing on a rocky ledge, and Fig. 4, "Le Cordon bleu", is a gray-blue bird with a dark mask and yellow touches, perched on a twig. Below, Fig. 2, "Le Mainate", is a glossy black bird with yellow head wattles on a stump, and Fig. 3, "Le Jaseur de Bohême", is a crested pinkish-brown waxwing with a red and yellow tipped wing, standing on a mossy mound.

The birds are drawn with fine engraved outlines and delicate hand-applied color in brown, gray, pink and yellow washes, each labeled with its figure number and French name. The grouping is by plate rather than by region, and most of the species shown are not American.