Lear's Parrots - The Prequel

Edward Lear Sketches of Parrots Relating to 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' (1832), ca. 1830 (MS Typ 55.9). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

A selection of plates from Lear's published book can be seen in the following post from 2008: The Parrots.

That book is definitely one of my all-time favourite natural history publications; so I was particularly happy to discover Harvard's intriguing collection of preliminary sketches and practice lithographs by Lear.

To quote myself:

"The balance of critical opinion regards Lear's book on parrots to be the finest ever published on that bird family and among the greatest ornithological works ever produced.

It's not just because such an audacious project was successfully completed by so young a character, or that the subject matter was drawn so sensitively and with great scientific accuracy and naturalistic detail, but because the exceptional quality of Lear's plates - drawn, wherever possible, from living specimens - would significantly influence the work of two contemporary artists, John James Audubon and John Gould, perhaps the greatest ornithological illustrators of all time.

Both Audubon and Gould would employ Lear during the 1830s to assist in their projects and it was only failing eyesight that foreshortened Lear's bird illustrating career."

Note: Edward Lear was TWENTY YEARS OLD when his Parrot book was published!!




Lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 45 x 30.9 cm.

Drawing cut-out and pasted on leaf.

Inscribed upper left:
"September 1830. Plyctolophus Sulphureus. from a living specimen at Bruton Street."

Two small green birds : hand-coloured lithograph

Macaw : graphite and watercolour drawing. 35.4 x 25.7 cm.

Two small parrots in foliage : ink and watercolour drawing. 37.2 x 55 cm.

Parrot head [red and yellow macaw] : graphite and watercolour drawing. 36.5 x 37 cm

Grey cockatoo : graphite and watercolour drawing. 42.8 x 31.6 cm.

Salmon-crested cockatoo : graphite and watercolour drawing. 54.7 x 36.6 cm.

Drawing for plate 2 in 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' , 1832.

[Two supplemental pieces of paper [MS Typ 55.9 (22/25a), MS Typ 55.9 (22/25b)] were detached from the sheet for drawing 22 by Lear himself and affixed to drawing 25. One, with colour samples, overlaid the lower right corner of drawing 25; the other was used to extend the feathered crest of the cockatoo beyond the upper edge of the main sheet of drawing 25.]

Small parrot : hand-coloured lithograph. drawing. 55.4 x 36.4 cm.

Green parrot : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 33.7 x 29.2 cm.

Inscribed:
"Palaeornis Torquatus. Leila: living at Mr. Vigor’s – Chester Terrace. drawn February 1831."





Parrot : graphite and watercolour on lithograph. 54.2 x 36.6 cm.

Inscribed upper left:
"Intended for P. Obscurus, alive at Bruton St. June 1830."

Blue parrot [Lear’s macaw] : graphite and watercolour drawing. 54.3 x 37.3 cm.

Green parrot : graphite and watercolour drawing. 54.8 x 27 cm.

Tabuan parakeet : lithograph. 55.6 x 37 cm.

Inscribed at top of leaf:
"Pattern for Printing. E. Lear."




Barnard's parakeet : graphite and watercolour drawing. 37.5 x 28.4 cm.

Drawing for plate 18 in the 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots', 1832.

Dark blue parrot : hand-coloured lithograph. 55.5 x 37.2 cm.

Black-capped lory : hand-coloured lithograph. 55.3 x 37.2 cm.

Inscribed on top portion of leaf:
"drawn from the living Lorius Domicella at Bruton St. my first lithographic failure."




Two parrots : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 55.7 x 37 cm.

One drawing cut-out and pasted on composite leaf.

Inscribed upper center:
September. 1830. "Macrocercus - ? – from living bird at the gardens."





Green and red parrot : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 34.3 x 27.4 cm.





Sulphur-crested cockatoo : graphite and watercolor drawing. 51.2 x 36.2 cm.

Drawing for plate 3 in 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots', 1832.



Lear, Edward, 1812-1888. Edward Lear sketches of parrots relating to 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' (1832), ca. 1830: Guide. Houghton Library, Harvard College Library.

• Check out the published illustration plates in The Parrots - includes more background and links.
• Edward Lear, The Parrots: The Complete Plates (Taschen).
• via @john_overholt / Houghton Library Blog
• Also see: Turtle Diary.
  
• Addit. (Nov 2012) A bit tangential, but still: David Attenborough receives his copy of Sharpe's Birds of Paradise from the Folio Society. It's a fabulous 6mins of video, promise!

Sedam Linoreza

Mihailo S. Petrov [Michael S Peter or Mihaila S. Petrova or михаило с петров] (1902 – 1983) was a Serbian graphic artist, painter, illustrator, poet and critic, professor, book and poster designer and typographer.

Petrov was a leading graphic protagonist of the Yugoslav anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-nationalist Avant-Garde movement known as Zenitism, that flourished in the 1920s.

"The international review of new art and culture Zenit (1921-1926) enjoyed a reputation in the world as the only Yugoslav Avant-Garde journal, which was included in the international Avant-Garde scene at the beginning of the 1920s. Zenit was launched by Avant-Garde artist Ljubomir Micic in February 1921 in Zagreb."

• Petrov's seven linocuts above {1921-22} were sourced from the Serbian National Library.
• The Wikipeida article on Zenitism provides direct links to all the issues of Zenit; again, hosted by the Digital National Library of Serbia.
• Mihailo S. Petrov biography from the Avant-Garde Museum (this is a detailed site in English devoted to modernist arts from member states of the former Yugoslavia)

Bird's Eye New York

Birds Eye View Map Of New York And Vicinity [1909]

Full colour perspective view from Yonkers to South Norwalk in the north and from Freeport to Ellis Island in the south.

Brown paper covers printed in black entitled "Bird's Eye View Map Of East And North Rivers And Long Island Sound Price 10 Cents - New York C.S. Hammond & Co. Publishers. Scale 1:80,033."

Bird's Eye View of New-York & Brooklyn [1851]

Drawn from nature & on stone by J. Bachman[n] and published by A. Guerber & Co.
The lithograph (63 x 82 cm) shows Battery Park and Governors Island in the foreground; with prominent features numbered in a key below the image.

"John Bachmann, Sr. (1814–1896) was a Swiss-born lithographer and artist best known for his bird's-eye views, especially of New York City. He was a journeyman lithographic artist in Switzerland and Paris until 1847. His first known American print [..] appeared in 1848, a view from an imagined point above Union Square in New York, looking south toward The Battery.

In 1849 and 1850, he created and published a series of American views, including views of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Havana. Both directly copied and used as a primary source by other lithographers at home and in Europe, these were the first major bird's eye views (drawn from an imagined perspective), as opposed to panoramic views (views drawn directly from the artists experience) in the United States."

Also see: Maphead and George Glazer Gallery entries ONE & TWO.

New York et Brooklyn -- Vue Prise au Dessus de la Batterie [1850s]
Nueva York y Brooklyn -- Vista Tomada en Cima de la Bateria

Drawn by Simpson, lithography by Theodore Muller

Bird's Eye View of the City of New York - chromo [1880s]

Artist: John Bachmann; published by LW Schmidt

Chromolithographic print showing a bird's-eye view of New York City with the Hudson River and the New Jersey waterfront on the left, New York Harbor and Governors Island in the right foreground, Battery Park, Manhattan, the East River, Brooklyn Bridge, and the borough of Brooklyn in the centre.

Bird’s Eye Panorama of Manhattan & New York City [1873] [source]

Created by George Schlegel lithographers; published by George Degen.

"The Brooklyn Bridge is obviously inaccurate as the bridge wouldn’t be completed for another 10 years" [source]




Gracie Emmett in her Great Play - The Pulse of New York by Howard P Taylor [1891]

This advertising poster for Emmett's play includes a legend of points of interest on each side of the map with locations related to the play in red.

[this image was spliced together from severed halves]

Bird's-eye view of New York with Central Park in the foreground [1873]

Print by George Schegel, published by George Degen.






Grand birds eye view of the Great East River suspension bridge Connecting the cities of New York & Brooklyn : Showing also the splendid panorama of the bay and the port of New York [1892]

"Construction commenced January, 1870 Completed May, 1873. Estimated cost $15,000,000"

Published by Currier & Ives.

New York [1873]

Created by Ferd. Mayer & Sons, Lithographers; published by Geo. Degen.

The City of Greater New York [1905]

Created by Charles Hart; published by Joseph Koehler

Bird's-eye view of greater New York with Battery Park on the right and showing the boroughs of Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Richmond, with the Hudson River in the foreground; prominent features and locations are listed below image.

New York [1874]

Cityscape panoramic print of New York showing the waterfront, Brooklyn Bridge, with Battery Park and Governors Island in the foreground

Produced by John Bachmann for George Schlegel; published by Tamsen & Dethlefs






The Port of New York: Birds Eye View from the Battery, looking South [1872]

Produced by CR Parsons & LW Atwater and published by Currier & Ives

The Port of New York: bird's eye view from the Battery, looking South [1872]

A breathtaking view of New York Harbour by the celebrated American publishers, Currier & Ives

One of the grand Currier and Ives' lithographs of New York {26 x 37 inches} this sweeping view from Battery Park looks out over a bustling New York Harbour. The view takes us past the Narrows and out to the open sea, where the horizon is punctuated by numerous ships masts. The harbour is also dotted with a myriad of steam ships, sailing schooners, yachts, barges, rowing boats, etc; all proving the city's position as one of the world's most important ports.

Along the walkways of Battery Park, crowds stroll or stand and marvel at the bustle of the river. Castle Garden sits prominently in the right foreground and is surrounded by numerous outbuildings. "From 1855 to 1900, Castle Garden was used as an immigration depot, processing more than 7.5 million people."

Bedloe's Island can be seen in middle-distance, sans the Statue of Liberty, which was erected in 1885. Forty-eight landmarks are listed below the image including Greenwood Cemetery, Bergen Bay, and Ellis Island. This fascinating print is one of the most picturesque of all the Currier & Ives views of Manhattan. The lithographers' and artists' careful attention to detail and the beautiful overall composition all make this one of the greatest of all the images issued by this prolific American printing house.

Currier and Ives are the most famous lithographic print publishers of the nineteenth century. Among their vast body of work are a number of topographical views; these are usually restricted to the large metropolises, especially New York, which was not only their home town but also their largest market. Their strategy to attract their audience appears to have been to create very large, highly detailed views from a breathtaking bird's-eye perspective, and to issue new editions of their views as frequently as was necessary to keep up with the ever-changing skyline of the city. Parsons and Atwater produced almost all the city views published by Currier & Ives in the years following the Civil War. In particular they were responsible for creating almost all the views of New York published by the firm between 1872 and 1892.

Source cites: Gale, Currier & Ives: A Catalogue Raisonné, 5257; Reps, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America, 2711, p. 196-198; & more.

The Port of New York: bird's eye view from the Battery, looking South [1892]

Hint: small addition in the background




Bird's-eye-view of the borough of Brooklyn showing parks, cemeteries, principal buildings, suburbs. [1897]

Perspective map, not drawn to scale. Signed "Geo. Welch"





Proposed site for World's Fair in 1883 - between 110th and 125th Streets, Morning Side and River Side Parks, N.Y. Area 300 acres.

As published in Demorest's Illustrated Monthly magazine from 1879

"The World’s Fair That Never Was"

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The vast majority of images in this post were sourced from the Library of Congress. All the images above have been uploaded in very large jpeg format, but the original [enormous] .tiff files should be sought if you want print quality.

• Popular Graphic Arts
• American Memory: New York Aerial Views

Searching on the image titles listed above turns up the Library of Congress results fairly easily in any event.

Other source or helper sites: Rumsey Maps; Boston Library; Ward Maps; NYPL; Columbia; the Big Map Blog. [also, interactive 1865 lower Manhattan]

There is also a fair choice of New York bird's-eye images at Amazon.

The images below are much smaller, comparatively speaking.

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City of New York - sketched and drawn on stone by C. Parsons [1856]

Bird's-eye view of New York City with Battery Park in the foreground and Brooklyn Heights in the lower right corner. Published by N Currier. {larger versions are available}

View of the city of New York and vicinity [1907]

Bird's-eye view from the south by August R. Ohman, map publisher, draughtsman & engraver {larger version}






New York: a birdseye view from the harbor, showing Manhattan Island in its surroundings, with various points of interest in the city and the location of Rogers, Peet & Co.'s building, the exact center of the clothing trade in New York City. Published by Rogers, Peet & Co. Wholesalers and Retail Clothiers 1879. [Printed by Currier & Ives]


On general principles, see - Bowsprite : A New York Harbor Sketchbook.

See also: Geographicus.

Antiquarian Tableware

'De Lucernis Antiquorum Reconditis Libb. Sex: In Quibus Earum Recens Inventarum adhuc ardentium observationes multæ primum afferuntur: Aliorum opiniones omnes de ipsarum attributis dein expenduntur: Earum causæ, proprietates, differenti, æque singulæ deinceps ex rei natura deteguntur: Pluresque dubitationes e traditiis emergentes demum eluuniur. Explicatis diligenter abditissimis Quæstionibus De Ignium causis, origine, vaietate, duratione, motu, & extinctu: De Antiperistasi, Fumo, Cinere, Lentore, Mistis incombustibilibus, Brutorum Funeribus, & aliis Naturæ Arcanis. Declaratisque plurimis Antiquitatis ritibus Lychnos supra centum effigiantibus: Cum Indicibus locupletissimis. Autore Fortunio Liceto Genuense Ex L. Com. Phil. Medico in Academia Patau. Theorico supremo' 1653, was recently uploaded by the University of Heidelberg (click anything below 'Inhalt' and then 'Vorschau' for thumbnail page images) {see}

My Latin being next to non-existent (except when I pretend it isn't), I'm only vaguely of the belief that the Liceti designs of Greek and Roman houseware items, from the antiquities, come from actual objects. They may well have been sketched after paintings or chiselled designs found in ruins. Such is the depth of my comprehension at this late hour. And pay little notice to the image titles on mouseover: it's mostly snipped text from the same page, rather than being pertinent.

None of that, of course, diminishes one's capacity to marvel at the twisted imaginations of the designers bringing delightful satyrs and grotesques to the domestic table.

The author, Fortunio Liceti (1577–1657) is best known for his works on malformed embryos, particuarly 'De Monstruorum Natura', which has never really been my thing.