Throat-Striped Hummingbird [Trochilus gularis], Collared Finch [Fringilla torquator] & Yellow-Throated Wagtail [Motacilla gularis]

Artist or Author: John Frederick Miller & George Shaw

Work: Cimelia Physica. Figures of Rare and Curious Quadrupeds, Birds, etc.

Date of Publication: 1796

Style: Originally Hand-Colored Engraving

Paper Size: ~ 14" by 20 3/8"

Condition: The work is in good to excellent condition overall. There may be a few minor imperfections to be expected with age. Please review the image carefully for condition and contact us with any questions.

Description of the work: This folio engraving is from George Shaw & John Frederick Miller's Cimelia Physica, Figures of Rare and Curious Quadrupeds, Birds, etc. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants... John Frederick Miller completed the original hand-coloring for the work, often heightened with gum arabic. This is from the second edition which was the first to add George Shaw's descriptions. The work published by T. Bensley for Benjamin & John White & John Sewell in 1796 [but circa 1816]. Each engraving is printed on woven, watermarked paper.

This exceptional natural history work featured flora and fauna of South Africa, North & South America, the East Indies, Australia, & Antarctica. The engravings were styled in a similar way to Mark Catesby's work with the animal paired with an exotic and relevant plant.  Some of the subjects in this work are of particular note with remarks from Shaw including the flightless Cassowary 'totally destitute of wings'; the Antarctic Falcon; Alcedo formosa a South American kingfisher 'never before described'; the violet-black Hoopoe 'one of the rarest of its genus as well as one of the most beautiful'; and an Indian toucan.

"John Frederick [Miller] was taken into Banks's employment. He drew many of the artefacts collected on James Cook's Endeavour voyage of 1768-71 and both brothers were to have accompanied Banks on Cook's second voyage. When that plan foundered, John Frederick accompanied Banks on his travels to the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Iceland in 1772; his drawings are now in the Natural History Museum, London. He subsequently published some of his engravings made from the Iceland drawings without Banks's permission, and allowed other plates to be used by Thomas Pennant to illustrate his "Arctic Zoology" (1784-7). In 1786-92 he published forty-three plates with descriptions, entitled "Various Subjects of Natural History", and in 1796 he illustrated George Shaw's Cimelia physica, both works treating rare quadrupeds, birds, and plants." (Timothy Clayton for DNB)

George Shaw (1751-1813 was a doctor, Fellow of the Royal Society, co-founder of the Linnean Society, and a zoologist of the British Museum. He was also the first to publish a scientific description of the platypus which was done in his noted work with Frederick Nodder, the Naturalist’s Miscellany.