
Luke Batterham
Senior Valuer
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Sold for £31,250 inc. premium
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Senior Valuer
"Such beautiful illustrations as those of the Birds of Great Britain scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed" (R. Bowdler Sharpe).
"Many of the public are quite unaware how the colouring of these large plates is accomplished; and not a few believe that they are produced by some mechanical process or by chromo-lithography. This, however, is not the case; every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought" (Preface).