Primary Artist

J.W. Lewin (1770–1819)

Title

Birds of New South Wales with their natural history.

Physical description

A bound book of 18 etchings and 18 leaves of descriptive text

Source

Lewin, John. Birds of New South Wales with their natural history. Sydney: G. Howe, 1813

Page or Plate number

collection record

Reference

Ferguson (1941-69, 1986), 557

Date made

1813

Place made

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia View on map Close map

Category

Illustrated book

Print types

intaglio | relief

Technique

etchings, printed in black ink, each from one copper plate; hand-coloured; letterpress text

Matrix size

28.0 x 21.4 cm (page)

Support

cream laid paper

State

published state

Impression

undesignated impression as issued

Edition information

print run unknown

Collection

National Gallery of Australia

IRN

10385

Accession number

96.916.1-18

Accession method

Purchase

Meeting

Meeting 2, 1996/97 (1996-10-29)

Provenance

A.S.Whymper, signature on free endpaper. Christie's catalogue (1996) suggests that this signature is that of Annette Whymper.

Annette Whymper

Annette Whymper was one of the eleven children of the English wood engraver Josiah Wood Whymper (1813-1903). The engravings for British Birds in their Haunts, 1862 after drawings by Joseph Wolf is considered his masterpiece. Among his other publications were the wood engravings for the Life and Habits of Wild Animals, 1873-74 produced with the help of his sons Charles, Frederick and Edward. Charles H. Whymper (1853-1941) provided illustrations for books on travel, sport and natural history. They include wood engravings for Yarrells History of British Birds, 1871-89 and the birds of Egypt in 1909. Edward J. Whymper (1840-1911), alpinist, illustrator and wood engraver, who engraved the illustrations for Howard Willoughby Australian pictures drawn with pen and pencil, London 1886, married Edith Mary Lewin in 1906.

H.Bradley Martin

Henry Bradley Martin (1906-1988), born in New York, studied at Christ Church College, Oxford from 1924-29. During these years he began to form his extensive library which was particularly strong in ornithology and literature. Martin had the distinction of owning two copies of this book.

Library of H.Bradley Martin, Sotheby's, New York 7 June 1989, lot 145, US $360,000 (A$ 525,000).

John Elliott

John Elliott (1941-2021), company director, acquired a number of high-priced books in the late 1980s.

Printed Books, Autograph Letters, Documents, Pop and Sport Memorabilia, Christie's, Melbourne 26 March 1996, lot 276 (est. $3000,000-500,000) $240,000 to Horden House.

Purchased by the National Gallery of Australia, from Horden House, Sydney, 1996.

Credit line

Purchased 1996

Subject categories

Australia, Book arts: Illustrated book | Australia, Art period: Colonial, New South Wales | Australia, Animal: Bird

Country of context

Australia

Creators

Lewin, J.W. | (1770–1819) Australian | English | Male | artist

Last Updated

12 Nov 2024