Rose-headed Ring Parakeet From Portraits of the Rare and Curious Exotic Birds, with their descriptions, from Menagery of Osterly Park.
Privately printed. Circa 1794. 18 x 27 cm hand-coloured engraving of a small parakeet, neatly presented in a 40 x 47 cm matboard ready for framing. Slight spotting, otherwise a very good print. A hand-coloured engraving of a Rose-headed Ring Parakeet after an illustration by William Hayes (1735-1802) from Portraits of the Rare and Curious Exotic Birds, with their descriptions, from Menagery of Osterly Park. The original edition of Portraits was commissioned by Robert and Sarah Child, the owners of Osterley, and was the first published systematic record of a single private collection of live birds.
Hayes, an English ornithological watercolour artist and publisher, employed seven of his children in printing, colouring, assembling and, occasionally, even the drawing of some of the illustrations for his publications. When book orders needed to be fulfilled, 'a production line of unrivalled chaos' could be witnessed at the Hayes family home. Given this, it was not uncommon for the contents of each book to vary, depending on what prints were available at the time.
This engraving is from an edition published by his family after his death. Item #4874
Price (AUD): $400.00