Featured Lear's Royal Aracari - 1834

Heh, bird porn - gorgeous toucan! Love birds too, as does my 90 year old Mom, she's collected swans for decades (I secretly refer to her house as 'swan hell') - here's an old thread showing some of her collection: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/some-salts.1380/

Wish I could have birds, but a sad experience with the family cat and my childhood canaries made me decide it was one or the other, though I know households where they do live in harmony. First time in 45 years I've had only one critter, but my elegant Siamese-mix Talisman is a skilled hunter, have had to take more than one of his victims to bird rescuers...

~Cheryl

 

Bit limited in mobility at that moment (nursing a badly sprained ankle), but will get a shot for you of a rather lovely old hand-painted plate that hangs on my bedroom wall, has a very pretty bird, along with a dragonfly...

~Cheryl

 

I will also take a photo of mine, but thought the scan in the link would show it really well, too!

 

I remember that thread, Cheryl! Thanks for posting. And I'd love to see a picture of the plate. With Gila's permission, maybe this should become a thread for all sorts of bird images. I also like old botanical prints, but also of animals... especially birds. And newer art depicting birds, too.

 

Wow, Cheryl, yeah... birds and cats/dogs can be an awful mix.
Can't wait to see your picture! Swan hell... impressive, though!

Thanks, Fig! What a flattering and awesome idea!!! I love birds so much... can't get enough. That would be fun.

 

Gila, a couple of pretty poor photos of my toucan picture. It's dark and murky outside and although a shade was open it didn't help. And the lights in my house are really not very bright in most places. The scan in the link I posted above shows it much more clearly. (Here is the link again http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp?image=415921)

The opening in the mat is just 4" x 6.5" -- so it's not very large. I can see the plate mark showing on the print, across the bottom of the mat opening. This appears to have been framed fairly recently. A plain brown wood frame -- it doesn't do much for it, I don't think. But it also doesn't distract. The mat has a black inner edge, as you can probably see.

One of these was taken with a flash, and one without. Maybe some time I'll be able to get some better ones.

 

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
As your link told, your boy Nodder was a big name in his day, did work for Royals, made the rounds of the big engravers and printers. I always enjoy the poses of these really early birds... the idea of "natural poses" hadn't really caught on, and the birds were posed like little aristocrats, which I find so charming!
I like the plain frame. Even my big Lear is in a plain black frame, just a tiny bit of gold leaf. It came from Oppenheimer's that that way.
I love the smaller birds for intimate corners, or desk areas, or any weird little spot that just "needs something".
Some of the early prints showed birds whose names have changed, or who have gone extinct. You White-Throat is alive and well in the Amazon. My Aracari became today's "Belted Toucan", based on my research.
Thanks for showing your little friend.

 

WOW!!!

 

So many birds, so little time...

 

@GaleriaGila, I happened to see this catalog today. Enjoy!

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...leries_Special_List_2.pdf?8258249535557993782

Also I loved bringing up this old discussion again!

 

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'll need to be alone for a while now...
birrrrrrrrrrrrrd porrrrrrrrrrrrrrn...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!