Beschreibung:

ALBUM OF BIRD DRAWINGS - Nach dem Leben gemachte Abbildungen unterschiedener sowohl Inn als Auslaendischer Vögel [Paintings from Life of various Native and Foreign Birds] [Glogau?, Silesia, second half of the eighteenth century] 2° (470 x 315 mm.), title-page comprising a woodland scene with an owl, robin, blue-tits and a moth and 145 original drawings of birds in pen and ink and watercolour, many heightened with white, mostly depicted in their natural surroundings, occasionally with animals and insects, one uncoloured in pen and ink and wash on brown paper, 6 on blue paper, most of the others, including title, on cream laid paper, 16 drawings with contemporary manuscript notes in ink on recto (12) and verso (4), 33 drawings with slightly later ms. captions in ink in a different hand on recto or verso, many of the sheets extended to size with joins, 4 with small marginal tears neatly repaired. Mounted on guards throughout and bound in a nineteenth century album of diced calf over wooden boards, panelled sides embossed in gilt and blind, upper cover with title Nach Dem Leben Gemachte Abbildungen in und Auslaendischer Vögel stamped in gilt, g.e. (a little rubbed, upper joint weak; many of the drawings appear to have been trimmed at the time of binding). AN EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ORNITHOLOGICAL STUDIES. The drawings, most showing one large figure, but some with two or more on a sheet, are roughly bound in order according to groups beginning with Birds of Prey (39) including vultures, eagles, hawks, owls, etc., shown perching on branches of trees, a few with landscape backgrounds. The Eagle Owl is embellished with shiny orange and black mica eyes which are inlaid and secured on the verso. Parrots (13) including a cockatoo with a monkey eating fruit and a green parrot swinging in a hoop above a dog seated on a table with a red ribbon tied round its neck. Familiar Birds (13) including crows, jays, magpies, woodpeckers, kingfisher, thrush with a lizard and stag beetle, golden oriole and hoopoe with a butterfly, etc. Game Birds (26) including pheasants, partridges, black-cock, etc. some painted when dead, one with a badger, and including cockerel and guinea fowl. Water Birds (41) including ducks, geese, herons, woodcock, snipe, including snow goose, Persian water hen etc. The final miscellaneous group of 13 drawings includes a young ostrich, pigeons, doves, swallows, tits, song birds, etc., one with two flying bats. Although there are no signatures, the contemporary manuscript notes in German, giving the size of the birds and, in a few instances, the date and place they were found, suggest the artist completed the drawings over a period of several years probably for a Count or local landowner. The "natural" sizes are given in Zoll (inches), Fuss (feet) and Elle (yards), including height and wing-span. Details given include 'shot 1730 at Drehna in Niederlaussniz'; 'Anno 1732 this duck was caught by the falcon of the Count's falconer at Gross Kotzen'; 'Shot in 1748 at Gross Glogau'; 'This foreign hawk shot in 1758 near Sorau represented in its natural size' and '1761 near Glogau, this bird caught by fishermen in the river Oder'. None of the parrot drawings have any notes and some are clearly drawn in domestic surroundings which suggests the Count may have had a menagerie or aviary, and this could also explain the presence of the young ostrich. The later notes in ink on 33 drawings are ornithological classifications, mostly references to Borowski (George Heinrich Borowski: Gemeinnüzzige Naturgeschichte des Thierreichs , &c. Berlin, 1780-84?) and one reference to Buffon and one to Bertuch, a few classifications have no source. The fortified town of Glogau was in the Prussian province of Silesia, built partly on an island and partly on the left bank of the river Oder, and known for its Gothic cathedral and Renaissance style castle.