Rowley's Ornitholigical Miscellany - Three Volumes with 135 Bird Lithographs

Artist or Author: George Dawson Rowley & John Gerrard Keulemans

Work: Ornithological Miscellany

Date of Publication: 1876-1878

Style: Three Volumes with 135 Bird Lithographs

Paper Size: ~ 10 3/4" by 12 5/8"

Condition: The work is in very good good to excellent condition overall. There is some scattered light foxing, very occasional inoffensive spotting to plates, else plates generally clean and fresh. There is some bumping to corners and spine, slight rubbing to extremities. 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: These three volumes with 135 bird lithographs is George Dawson Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany. They were published in London between 1876 and 1878, by Trubner & Co.

The volumes are bound in quarter red leather, gilt lettering to spine and raised bands. There 135 plates in total, 104 of these are either hand-colored or printed in chromolithography. The original wrappers are bound in at the rear.

George Dawson Rowley (1822-1878) was an English ornithologist who studied at Eton and Trinity Colleges.

The work featured detailed articles on the birds of Mongolia & Tibet, New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, New Guinea, Madagascar, and more. The articles were written by noted ornithologists H. E. Dresser, Alfred Newton, O. Salvin, P. L. Sclater, H. Seebohm, and R. B. Sharpe. Of particular note with this work was that it detailed some of the rarer birds of New Zealand. The images were done by J. G. Keulemans, J. Smit, and others.

John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912) is one of the most respected bird artists whose images were noted for their fine detail. He contributed to some of the best known ornithological works including those of Elliot, Buller, Dresser, and The Ibis. According to Jackson (Bird Illustrators, p. 90) “The great value of Keulemans' work as an ornithological draughtsman lay in his sureness of design of the plate and his accuracy in portraying the birds themselves. The bird figures were carefully drawn and executed down to the last scales on the feet. The feathering was neatly delineated with the different plumes receiving sympathetic treatment.”

Provenance: Owned by Professor William Gardner Hale, top British authority on wading birds