Antique Natural HistoryOriginal plates from the naturalists' books, 1600s to 1900s
Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869
Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, view 2
Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, view 3

Close-ups

Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, close-up 1Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, close-up 2

Framed and on the wall

Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, shown framedAntique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, shown framed on a wallAntique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869, shown framed in a room

Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.

Antique Bird Print of Xantus's Murrlets Made after D.G. Elliot, 1869

$865 (£650, €770)

Period original, not a reproduction.

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Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.

Date
1869
Size
24.6 × 27.6 in (62.5 × 70 cm)
Condition
Good. Please study image carefully.
Period
Late 19th century
Section
Birds
Reference
f_9152821

Xantus's murrelets, a color lithograph lettered "Brachyramphus hypoleucus", from Daniel Giraud Elliot's "The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America", published between 1866 and 1869. The sheet is lettered as drawn from nature by Elliot and printed by Bowen & Co. of Philadelphia.

The plate shows three birds in a coastal setting. One stands upright on a grassy ledge at the right in the foreground, with a black back, a white breast and a thin pointed bill, while a second flies low over the water to the left. A third is perched on the cliff behind, and small birds float on the surface and wheel above the sea in the background. The water is a pale green and the rock is a soft gray-green.

The work appeared between 1866 and 1869 and set out to figure North American species not previously illustrated. Only 200 copies were printed, and the lithography was by Bowen & Co. of Philadelphia.