Title: Fine Bird Books 1700-1900
Author: Sacheverelli Sitwell
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990
Text by Sachaverelli Sitwell, James Fisher, and S. Dillon Ripley; 180 pages, 52 color illustrations
In the 18th century, the philosophy of rationalism was at its peak, and the impulses to catalog and classify reigned over the arts and sciences. Fine Bird Books 1700-1900 is a visual and textual chronicle of the technical, aesthetic, cultural, and scientific influences on the minds and libraries of learned collectors worldwide, functioning as the most comprehensive illustrated guide to collectible colorplate books. Represented with remarkable tonal brilliance and meticulous detail are the prints of the American naturalists John James Audubon, John Gould, and Edward Lear, as well as international artists Joseph Wolf, Jacques Barraband, Coenraad Temminck. The book is arranged chronologically, and depicts both indigenous North American and European birds alongside exotic species. It is valued not only for the inherent beauty manifested by the illustrations, many of which have never been printed after their original publication, but also for its comprehensive bibliography of ornithological prints made in the 18th and 19th centuries.
