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California Quail Pair, Partridge Couple of California, Antique Bird Print, 1798
$300 (£230, €270)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1798
- Size
- 16.7 × 10.8 in (42.4 × 27.5 cm)
- Condition
- Good. Good condition overall. Light, even age toning throughout the sheet, with scattered small foxing spots and mild discoloration more noticeable in the margins. Image remains crisp and well-defined, with clear plate impression visible.
- Period
- 18th century
- Section
- Birds
- Reference
- f_47986802
A male and female California quail, an original copper engraving titled "Male & Female Partridge of California," published as the Act directs on 1 November 1798 by G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London. The plate is printed in black on laid paper and is numbered in the lower right margin.
The two birds stand facing each other on a low, bare rise. The male at the left has the forward-curving topknot, dark face and white-bordered throat that mark the species, and a scaled pattern runs down his belly. The female, with a smaller crest and plainer head, turns toward him. A few tufts of grass and fallen twigs lie at their feet, and the sky is left blank, so that attention stays on the plumage.
The caption gives the quail the old English name of partridge, which was how European naturalists in the 1790s grouped them. The California quail was among the species first described from the Pacific coast of North America in these years, and the plate belongs to the natural history illustration that followed the voyages of that decade.
