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Samuel Dixon: A George II Irish embossed gouache bird picture image 1
Samuel Dixon: A George II Irish embossed gouache bird picture image 2
Lot 228

Samuel Dixon: A George II Irish embossed gouache bird picture

20 November 2013, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,500 inc. premium

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Samuel Dixon: A George II Irish embossed gouache bird picture

Depicting a gold finch and flowers, comprising scarlet and yellow Turkey Renuncula, honeysuckle, blue lark-heel, lily of the valley, scarlet and purple variegated anenomy, variegated green, red and yellow Renuncula, Auricula Royal Pair and scarlet sweet scented pea with an orange field butterfly within a 19th century mahogany and parcel gilt frame, 37cm high (14.5"high), 47cm wide (18.5" high)

Footnotes

Comparative Literature - A.Longfield: 'Samuel Dixon's Embossed Pictures of Flowers and Birds', Irish Georgian Society Bulletin, Oct-Dec 1975, and 'More About Samuel Dixon and His Imitators', the Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Society, January-June, 1980

Samuel Dixon of Dublin was made famous by his sets of embossed bird and flower pictures, issued between 1748 and 1755, his pictures incorporated a technique which he called 'basso relievo', in which parts of the picture were raised be means of a copper plate and coloured in gouache. Dixon's first set of twelve formal flower arrangements were advertised in the 26th April 1748 edition of Faulkner's Dublin Journal. The success of this set encouraged Dixon to produce a 'set of curious Foreign Bird Pieces', advertised the following year. The designs were taken directly from the first four volumes of George Edward's Natural History of Uncommon Birds, 1743-1751, as were the descriptive printed labels used on the reverse and still present on the pair offered here.

A pair of similar pictures including a version of the Goldfinch offered here sold Bonhams London, 29 January 2007, lot 153 and a complete set of twelve similar pictures sold Christie's Fine English Furniture, 9th April, 1992, Lot 31.

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