Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
The Great Green Parrot of the West Indies, Hand-Coloured Engraving, ca.1770
£585 ($775, €690)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- 1770
- Size
- 14.8 × 9.3 in (37.5 × 23.5 cm)
- Condition
- Very good impression with strong hand-coloring. Light marginal toning and a few faint spots consistent with age, not affecting the image. Plate mark visible.
- Period
- 18th century
- Section
- Birds
- Reference
- f_46304922
The Great Green Parrot of the West Indies, an original hand-colored copper engraving published in Nuremberg by Johann Michael Seligmann in his Sammlung verschiedener ausländischer und seltener Vögel, the German edition of the bird plates of George Edwards. The date given is around 1770.
The bird is perched on a bare, lichen-grown branch above a small patch of grass and ferns, in full profile. Its plumage is green and yellow, with a blue patch about the eye and red markings on the head and breast, red and blue in the wing, and a pale, hooked beak. The title is engraved at the top in German, "Der grose grüne Papagey aus West-Indien," with "Tab. LVII" at the upper right. Beneath the picture are the Latin name "Psittacus viridis major, Occidentalis" and the French "Le Grand Perroquet Verd des Indes Occidentales," along with the credits "G. Edwards ad vivum delin.," "J.M. Seligmann excudit" and the engraver's credit at the lower right, read as Leitner.
George Edwards (1694 to 1773) drew his birds from life, and Seligmann's collection re-engraved Edwards's work, with that of Mark Catesby, for continental readers.
