(Discounted) Nasiterna Pygmaea, Pygmy Parrot. Keulemans hand-colored lithograph c1875

by Keulemans, John Gerrard

Exquisite little parrot from Kordo, Soek and Mysore - discovered during l'Astrolabe visit.

Original hand-coloured lithograph by eminent bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912), for George Dawson Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany published in London between 1875 and 1878. A colleague at the Zoological Society of London of 'The Bird Man' John Gould, Richard Bowdler Sharpe, In 1869, had persuaded Keulemans to move to London to produce 121 lithographs of Sharpe's Monograph of the Alcedinidae, or Family of Kingfishers, published between 1868 and 1871. Sharpe was librarian at the Zoological Society in London, and was greatly instrumental in establishing London as the most important centre for grand publications with hand-coloured illustrations of nature.

This item has been reduced below half-price as the page is lightly age-soiled and there is slight offsetting from opposite page printing, and a small archival repair at the rear of the right edge of this image. Size of plate, as published, is 315 x 245 mm (12 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches)