Lord, Thomas "Sheldrake Male" From "Entire System of Ornithology or Ecumenical History of British Birds"

"Shoveler Male." From Thomas Lord’s Entire System of Ornithology or Ecumenical History of British Birds.  

London: by the author, 1791-96. 11 1/2 x 17 1/4" (plate mark). Line engraving (hand colored). Light mat burn.  Else very good condition. Framed to museum specifications.

This ornithology is one of the rarest to be found complete because even when it was issued, the plates were considered obsolete for science and primitive as art.  Thus, not many copies were sold.  Mullens and Swann’s Bibliography of British Ornithology praises the art and states that the dating of each plate is very useful.  Over the years these inheritors of the concepts of George Edwards, Marc Catesby and the Count de Buffon have taken on an aura of folk art in their own right.  They are clear, bright, and delightful.