Loriculus Exilis from Manado, North Celebes. Keulemans lithograph c1878.

by Keulemans, John Gerrard

One of smallest parrots, gorgeous nectar-drinking Loriculus exilis - known as Pygmy hanging parrot, Red-billed hanging parrot and Green hanging parrot. Discovered in 1871, but rarely seen now due to loss of Sulawesi woodland habitat.

Original hand-coloured lithograph by Dutch bird illustrator, John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912) for George Dawson Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany, published in London between 1876 and 1878; including bird species from many countries, bird farming and hunting, newly discovered birds and ancient fossils. Most of the 127 hand-coloured lithographs were by J.G. Keulemans who usually signed his lithographic plates JGK.

Keulemans was considered the finest bird lithographer of his time, renowned for his artistic skill and scientifically accurate, hand-coloured lithographs. In 1869 fellow ornithologist and colleague of John Gould, Richard Bowdler Sharpe persuaded Keulemans to move to London to produce 121 lithographs for 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 greatly instrumental in establishing London as the most important centre for grand publications with hand-coloured illustrations of nature.

Size of page is 31 x 24cm (12 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches).