Monday, February 8, 2010
Crimson-crested Woodpeckers
This beautiful illustration of a female Crimson-crested Woodpecker (upper left) and one male comes from the four-volume Monographie des picidées (1859-1862), French ornithologist Alfred Malherbe (1804 -1865) (or 1804-1866?). I believe the bird on the lower left is a juvenile female. Describing every known species of woodpecker, the monograph was printed in 100 (or 120?) copies and accompanied by hand-colored lithographs. No surprise, the Wikipedia entry on Alfred Malherbe in French at this link contains more information than the English entry.
A bit more information about this work appears at Zoonomen.net at this link and also see a very detailed mention of it in The Ibis, A Magazine of General Ornithology, Vol. I, 1859
at this link. (You'll want to search for "Malherbe" using your browser if you visit the above two pages).
As for the price of Malherbe's magnificent work, a Google books scan of American Book-Prices Current, Volume 13 lists the 4 volumes with 121 colored plates at a mere $46.
Flash forward to November 11, 1992 and the work sold for $12,482 at Christie's, according to this link here!
Posted by Bill Benish at 1:04 AM
Labels: Crimson-crested Woodpecker, illustrations, malherbe
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