1807 · Birds, Plants & Natural History
Large Antique Bird Print of a White Bellied Caribbean Martin, circa 1807
$605
€540 · dollar price at today's exchange rate
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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.
- Date
- 1807
- Kind
- Birds, Plants & Natural History
- Size
- 51.5 × 34.4 cm (20.3 × 13.5 in)
- Condition
- Good. General age-related toning. Minor wear and foxing, blank verso. Please study image carefully.
- Period
- The Early Republic
- Places
- The West Indies
- Reference
- BG-13363-4
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
Male white-bellied martin, an original hand-colored engraving titled "L'Hirondelle à ventre blanc, m.le", with the Latin name "Hirundo dominicensis", from Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot's Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale, published about 1807. The plate is lettered "pl. 28", and the credits below read "Prêtre pinx.", "Langlois imp." and "Bouquet sculp.", naming the painter, the printer and the engraver.
The bird perches on a lichen-covered branch with a fork at the top, facing right, drawn at about life size on a large open sheet. Its head, back and wings are a glossy deep blue, its breast and belly clear white, and the folded wings and forked tail are tipped with brown. The feathers on the head and neck are drawn in fine scale-like strokes, with the color printed and finished by hand.
The bird is the Caribbean martin, Progne dominicensis, a swallow of the West Indies, and the plate is the companion of the female on plate 29.