Hurlingham Fine Arts

Description

This original watercolour was engraved as Plate 308, Falco dussumieri, Temminck 1824, in the historical illustrated bird publication ' M.Nouveau Recueil de planches coloriées d'Oiseaux pour servir de suite et de complément aux planches enluminées de Buffon' by Temminck, C.J.Laugier De Chartrouse. Paris, Levrault, (1820-) 1838 (-1839). The 5 Volumes, which were intended as a supplement to Buffon's 'Planches Enluminées',contained 600 coloured plates of birds after Nicolas Huet and Jean Gabriel Pretre, two leading artists in the field of Natural History illustration.

Inscribed in pencil under old mount, 'Pl.308 Autour Dussumier (Adulte) Havel'.

The female specimen, the subject of the present watercolour, is in the collection of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, France. It was collected by Jean Jacques Dussumier (1792-1883), a ship-owner and merchant from Bordeaux, who made several voyages to China and India collecting new species of birds and fish for the Musée de Paris.