Bird Etchings: The Illustrators and Their Books, 1655 -1855

Yesterday's Muse Verified independent store

→

288 pp. "This handsome volume surveys bird-book publishing in Britain from just before 1660, when metal-plate printing was introduced, to the mid-nineteenth century, when the proce ss was superseded by lithography. In this period, most of the bird books published in Britain were illustrated by the authors themselves, who learned to etch their drawings of birds on metal plates. It was a time when hundreds of previously unknown species were being discovered in all parts of the world, and a flood of new specimens reached the British Isles. Bird Etchings tells the story of those who contributed so importantly to the literature of ornithology." Show more