Hand-Colored Engraving of Plovers and Lapwings from Histoire Naturelle, 1790

1790 · Views & Engravings

Hand-Colored Engraving of Plovers and Lapwings from Histoire Naturelle, 1790

Name: Hand-Colored Engraving of Plovers and Lapwings from Histoire Naturelle, 1790
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13712-6
Price: 145 USD
Availability: InStock

$145

€130 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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

Date: 1790
Kind: Views & Engravings
Size: 31 × 22 cm (12.2 × 8.7 in)
Period: The Early Republic
Reference: BG-13712-6

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

Four plovers and lapwings on one sheet, an original copperplate engraving with hand coloring from the Histoire Naturelle (Ornithologie) of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, circa 1790, signed "Benard Direxit" at the lower right. The plate is numbered in the upper right corner and lettered "Histoire Naturelle, Ornithologie" at the foot.

The sheet is divided into two panels within a ruled yellow border. In the upper panel, Fig. 1, "Le Pluvier à collier", is a small slate-blue and white bird with a dark collar perched on a weathered stump, and Fig. 2, "Le Pluvier huppé", is a long-legged brown bird with a crested head standing on the rim of a nest-like tub. In the lower panel, Fig. 3, "Le Pluvier couronné", is a gray and plum-colored bird with a striped crown, and Fig. 4, "Le Pluvier à lambeaux", stands with open bill, gray-backed with a dark head and pink-brown tones. Each bird is shown on a low green ground with a sketched shoreline or grassy bank behind.

The color is applied by hand in watercolor over the engraved outlines, with ochre, brown and blue washes for the plumage.

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