Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
Large Old Hand-Colored Print of Northern Cardinals from Northern America, 1869
£1,570 ($2,075, €1,850)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1869
- Size
- 23.8 × 19.1 in (60.5 × 48.5 cm)
- Condition
- Very good, general age-related toning. Please study image carefully.
- Period
- Late 19th century
- Section
- Birds
- Reference
- f_26741932
- Color
- Hand colored
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.
Cardinalis igneus, a pair of red cardinals, an original large folio lithograph with hand coloring from Daniel Giraud Elliot's The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America, published in New York for the author between 1866 and 1869. The plate is lettered "Cardinalis igneus" and carries the notes "Drawn from Nature by D.G. Elliot, F.Z.S." and "Bowen & Co. Lith. Phila."
Two crested red birds are shown at life size on a gnarled branch among tall grasses. The male at the top sits upright in profile with its heavy pale bill and black face, and the female, below, is turned to face left with its crest raised. The reds are deep and warm, with browner wings and tails, and a spray of small purple flowers and a green leaf rise beside them from the grass.
Elliot's work set out to figure species of North American birds not shown by Wilson or Audubon, with a special interest in the American West from California to Texas and the Rocky Mountains. The plates were drawn by Elliot and printed by Bowen of Philadelphia, and the coloring was applied by hand.
