Edward Lear Trichoglossus versicolor, Variegated Parakeet. Lizars c1836.

by Lear, Edward

Varied Lorikeet "Native of New Holland" (Australia) engraving.

Fine original hand-coloured steel engraving by Edinburgh engraver William Home Lizars after a drawing by Edward Lear who assisted John Selby with illustrations for his work on Parrots published in London circa 1836 for Sir William Jardine's Naturalist's Library.

Between 1830 and 1832 Lear worked as a natural history draughtsman at the Zoological Society in London, he recorded the different members of the parrot family for his Illustrations of the family Psittacidae, or Parrots, considered a perfect combination of science and art, and resulting in his being elected an associate of the Linnaean Society. Lizars small, finely engraved portraits are exquisitely presented against the uncoloured engraving of each bird's habitat. 

This page is slightly age-discoloured. (It is 280 years old.) Page size is 17 x 10cm (6.6.x 4 inches)