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Hand-Colored Engraving of Plovers and Lapwings from Histoire Naturelle, 1790
£110 ($145, €130)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1790
- Size
- 12.2 × 8.7 in (31 × 22 cm)
- Condition
- Good, given age. Rough outside the platemark but image is fine. Contemporary hand-colouring. General age-related toning and occasional minor defects from handling. Few creases in the right top. Please study scans carefully.
- Period
- 18th century
- Section
- Birds
- Reference
- f_41462122
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.
