Sclater's Exotic Ornithology - Volume with 100 Originally Hand-Colored Lithographs

Artist or Author: P. L Sclater & Osbert Salvin

Work: Exotic Ornithology, containing Figures and Descriptions of New or Rare Species of American Birds

Date of Publication: 1869

Style: Volume with 100 Originally Hand-Colored Lithographs

Paper Size: ~ 16 3/4 by 11 3/4

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

Description of the work: This volume with 100 originally hand-colored lithographs is Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin's Exotic Ornithology containing figures and descriptions of new or rare species of American birds. The work was published in London by Bernard Quaritch between 1866 and 1869. All of the illustrations were completed by or after Joseph Smit.

The volume is bound in quarter leather with a gilt raised spine. There are 100 originally hand-colored lithographs. The images from this work are considered among the finest Smit ever produced. “Smit has done an excellent job with these plates, for the lovingly detailed birds stand out sharply against their backgrounds of trees, branches and leaves. It is obvious that Smit enjoyed painting the leaves as well as the birds, for they are beautifully executed” (Coues)

The work was intended to illustrate "the many new and rare ornithological forms that have been recently discovered in nearly every part of the world's surface. As it progressed, however, the authors found that it would be more convenient to restrict it to the birds of the Neotropical Region — that is America south of the United States. No other part of the world can vie with Tropical America in the richness of its avifauna; and nowhere else have so many brilliant discoveries been recently made" (Anker).

Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913) was an English ornithologist. The zoogeographic regions that he developed are still in use, albeit expanded upon by later zoologists.

Osbert Salvin (1835-1898) was an English naturalist, and ornithologist. He worked closely with Frederick DuCane Godman, traveling with him to Guatemala in 1861 to aid in the development of a 52-volume encyclopedia on the natural history of South America.

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