Spectacular Rare Large Antique Bird Print of The Large-Bill Puffin, 1868

€ 1 850

Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)

Date: 1868
Sheet size: 50 × 40.5 cm (19.7 × 15.9 in)
Reference: BGI-00187

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Condition

Very good, general age-related toning. Please review the images for further condition details.

About this sheet

The large-billed puffin, plate "Fratercula Glacialis," an original hand-colored lithograph from Daniel Giraud Elliot's The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America, published in New York for the author between 1866 and 1869. The large folio sheet is dated 1868 and is lettered "Drawn from Nature by J. Wolf, London" at the lower left and "Bowen & Co. Lith. & Col'd Philada." at the lower right.

A single puffin stands in profile on a pale rocky ledge in the foreground, drawn near life size, with its black back, white breast, gray face and orange legs. The deep bill is painted in bands of blue, yellow and red. Behind, two more puffins stand at the water's edge and another is in flight, over a calm sea with a low headland on the horizon. The species name is printed in capitals beneath the image.

Elliot's work concentrated on North American birds that Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon had not figured, with a particular focus on the American West and some species from Alaska and the Arctic. The plates were predominantly lithographed by Bowen of Philadelphia, here after a drawing by the celebrated natural history artist Joseph Wolf.