Selby, Prideaux John “Red Throated Diver, Young”

Prideaux John Selby.  “Red Throated Diver, Young”.

From Illustrations of Ornithology. London: Selby, 1821-1834. Imperial folio; ca. 15 1/2 x 21. Copper engraving. Original hand coloring. Faint stains in plate under title and small printers wrinkle just into plate mark all not affecting image.  Else, very good condition.  

Prideaux John Selby is often called the British Audubon, for his magnificent work, Illustrations of Ornithology, was the first British natural history to render all its subjects in their exact life size, as Audubons was the first to do so for American birds. In depicting the birds in their life size, Selby produced prints of a larger size than any other prints of the period than those of Audubon, whose prints followed shortly. Finely engraved, accurate in detail, wonderfully colored, and strong and dramatic in appearance, Selbys prints are some of the best figures of British birds that have ever been published... (C.E. Jackson, Bird Illustrators, p.33)