Views of America · 19th century
€ 270
One of a kind: this is the sheet in the photographs. Ships from Langweer, the Netherlands.
Good, given age. General age related toning and soiling but mostly around the edges and mostly outside the image. Old hand-coloring. Two edges cut rough. Please study the images carefully.
This print is an old-colored lithography by Carl Wilhelm Hahn from around 1820 and it's listed in Nissen's bibliographic catalog of zoological books, which is referenced as "Nissen 403."
The image is depicting a bird labeled as "Psophia crepitans," which is the scientific name for the Grey-winged Trumpeter. The term "Goldbrüstiger Trompetenvogel" can be translated from German to "gold-breasted trumpeter bird," which may be a reference to the bird's appearance or a common name used during that time.
The Grey-winged Trumpeter is a bird species found in the forests of South America, particularly in the Amazon Basin. It's known for its vocalizations that resemble trumpet calls, which is where it gets its common name. The illustration features a detailed representation of the bird with its distinctive coloration and shape, standing on grass with a profile view of its head above it. This style of illustration, with a detailed study of the bird's features and a more artistic rendering, is typical of natural history illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries.
This lithography is from Carl Wilhelm Hahn's work titled "Birds from Asia, Africa, America & New Holland in Illustrations after Nature with Descriptions by Him and Several Naturalists," which was published by Lechner in Nuremberg. Given this context, the bird depicted in the lithography is from one of the regions mentioned (Asia, Africa, America, or New Holland - which is an old name for Australia) and was illustrated based on natural observations of the time.
The artist of the print is Carl Wilhelm Hahn, and it is a part of his work on ornithology with title: "Vögel aus Asien, Africa, America & Neuholland in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen von Ihm und mehreren Naturkundigen,"
Given the bird depicted is the Grey-winged Trumpeter, which is native to South America, it fits the geographical scope of Hahn's work. The detailed hand-colored lithography is consistent with the early 19th-century natural history illustrations, where the artists often included both a profile and a detailed study of the bird's head.
