Toucan. R.P. Nodder hand-coloured copperplate engraving c1800.

by Nodder, Richard Polydore

Antique print of a Toucan by Richard Nodder. Original hand-coloured copperplate engraving, drawn and engraved by “animal painter, and draftsman in natural history” R.P. Nodder (1774-1823) for The Zoological Miscellany: being descriptions of new or interesting animals, compiled by William Elford Leach, M.D., F.R.S., and L.S. published in London circa 1798-1813.

Frederic Polydore Nodder (1751-1801) initially provided the dramatic copperplate engraved illustrations for this work. After his death, B. McMillan, Bow-Street printed the coloured figures, drawn from nature, by R.P. Nodder, for Frederick Nodder’s wife Elizabeth & Richard Polydore Nodder, 34, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden’.

Page size: 140 x 235mm (5.5 x 9.25 inches). There is printer's ink at centre top, and faint soiling towards top left of plate, but it would be difficult to detract from this wonderful character study.