WOLF, Joseph (1820-1899)

Phasianus Soemmerringii [Soemmering's Pheasant]

New York: Danioel Giraud Elliot, [1870]-1872. Hand-coloured lithograph, finished with gum arabic, after Joseph Wolf by J. Smit, printed by P.W.M. Trap. Very good condition. Sheet size: 18 13/16 x 23 3/4 inches.

A beautiful image from the most splendid of Elliot's great monographs, "A Monograph of the Phasianidae or Family of the Pheasants."

The magnificent size and beautiful colouring of the plates after Joseph Wolf's charcoal drawings reflect the importance which Elliot attached to the Phasianidae. Of all the families in the ornithological system, he regarded it as the one most vital to the human race, "containing within it the species that afford food for thousands of mankind, and also those which are the original source of all the domestic poultry met with throughout the civilized world."

Cf. Anker 130; Fine Birds Books (1990), p. 95; Nissen IVB 295; Wood p. 331; Zimmer p. 206.

Item #22404

Price: $4,500.00