1884 HENRY SEEBOHM Color Illustrations of British BirdS: GUILLEMOT EGGS

Description: Rare 1883-4 Superb Color lithograph from: A HISTORY OF B R I T I S H B I R D S , WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF THEIR E G G S .BY H E N R Y S E E B O H M Plate 25. GUILLEMOT EGGS This extraordinary rendering of six amazing eggs of Guillemots is beautiful & fascinating. Like the extinct Great Auk eggs, the related Guillemots decorate their large eggs in these patterns & colors. Each pair of birds creates only one egg per season, & each egg is unique, with its own abstract expressionist painting & background colors. About the Volumes: These prints are from noted British ornithologist Henry Seebohm's 'A History of British Birds, with Coloured Illustrations of their Eggs', published in London by R.H. Porter from 1883-1885, in four volumes with 68 colored platesThe final volume with the plates, 'Coloured Figures of the Eggs of British Birds' was Seebohm's last work, and was completed and published posthumously by Richard Bowdler Sharpe of the British Museum.The superb lithography was done by Pawson & Brailsford. About the Author:Henry Seebohm (1832 – 1895) was an English steel manufacturer, and amateur ornithologist, oologist and traveller. Henry became interested in natural history at school and continued to spend his spare time studying birds on his journeys. He was one of the first European ornithologists to accept the American trinomial system to classify sub-species. Seebohm's publications included A History of British Birds (1883), The Geographical Distribution of the family Charadriidae (1887), The Birds of the Japanese Empire (1890) and A Monograph of the Turdidae (1902, completed by Richard Bowdler Sharpe). Seebohm bequeathed his collection of bird-skins to the British Museum. The collection, which was received in 1896 consisted of nearly 17,000 specimens. A number of birds were named after Seebohm, including the grey emutail (Dromaeocercus seebohmi) by Bowdler Sharpe. A portrait of Seebohm in oil by Hugh Ford Crighton is held by Sheffield Museums. About the Plate:These prints were individually made by hand: The originals were hand-painted watercolor drawings, these images were then drawn onto thick lithographic stones.These are Stone Chromo-Lithographs, where the image for each color was drawn by hand on heavy slabs of limestone in a water-repellant wax or 'grease'. During printing, water is sponged over the drawn image, which is absorbed into the stone. When the stone is inked with a roller, it sticks only to the water-repellent drawing, & leaves the bare wet stone clean. The print is then transferred to the paper laid atop the stone & run by hand through a press. The process is very involved, especially the colored prints, where multiple stones for each color had to line up perfectly with each successive imprint to register perfectly on the page. Stone lithography allowed for fluid drawing & subtle toning, which were much more difficult to achieve in copperplate engravings, & bypassed the need for an engraver & the tedious inking process of metal plates. Stone lithography is entirely different than present-day offset lithographs, apart from the use of water to resist ink. About the Guillemots:Guillemot is the common name for several species of seabird in the Alecida or Auk family, part of the order Charadriiformes. In Europe, the term covers two genera, Uria and Cepphus. In North America the Uria species are called murres and only the Cepphus species are called "Guillemots". Guillemots lay a single pyriform (pear-shaped) egg directly on a cliff edge in dense breeding colonies; they do not build a nest, allowing them to nest close to one another even on uneven cliff edges, the density protecting their eggs and chicks from predatory gulls. Condition: Appears to be in good condition for a centuries-old engraving. Some age-toning, handling & character typical for a bookplate print this old. A clean plate as these go. Please peruse the detailed photos. These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts & handling from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully. Text Page(s): This one comes without original text page(s). I've included a scan of a title page from one of the editions for reference as well as a portrait of Henry Seebohm, these are not part of the listing Size: 9-3/4 x 6 inches approximately. Combined Shipping: Yes! Multiple prints can be combine into one Priority Mail package. Larger prints may need to be shipped in tube. eBay should auto-combine your items if you put all of your selections into your shopping cart & check out all together as one order. If you purchase them individually, eBay charges shipping on each. If you're assessed multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund any overage asap. Insurance: USPS Priority Mail typically insures a Priority Mail package or envelope for a maximum of $100. If the value of your combined purchase goes over that, I may not always be able to absorb this cost, they do allow me to add the additional insurance cost to cover the additional value. I do pack very carefully. In the extremely rare case that USPS damages anything in transit, the best way to be refunded for your purchase is to actually take your physical package to the Post Office & file a claim, but I'll do my best to help ~ Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 69 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2025-02-15T04:49:57.000Z

Shipping Cost: 8.95 USD