- 2
Bidwell, E.
Description
3 volumes of mounted photographs (13 7/8 x 10 1/4 in.; 353 x 260 mm). 60 (of 69?) plates of auk eggs, each comprising 2 silver print photographs of different views of a single egg (each ca. 4 x 6 in.), the pairs of photographs mounted on sheets of buff paper signed by the compiler and photographer in pencil ("E. Bidwell"), the mounting sheets set in recessed mats on cloth guards, tissue-guards watermarked "Original/Turkey Mill/Kent"; some marginal foxing and spotting, generally not affecting plates. Half red morocco gilt by Porter, edges gilt; some wear and discoloration.
Literature
Catalogue Note
A very fine collection of photographs of auk eggs, assembled by Edward Bidwell of Twickenham, who was also the photographer. The story of Edward Bidwell (1845–1929), as related by Errol Fuller in The Great Auk, is worth repeating here. Bidwell, "an East Anglian gentleman of some means, formed a determination to list the whereabouts of every surviving Great Auk egg and then to photograph each of them. Although he didn't quite succeed in his self-appointed task, it is due to his dogged determination that a virtually complete photographic record can be provided today …. He was able to include 71 Great Auk eggs on the final version of his list and of these he managed to photograph 69. He seems to have supplied copies of these photographs, carefully mounted on pieces of card, to specimen owners in exchange for access to their eggs. Whether partial or complete sets were also offered for sale is not known. A number of very incomplete collections exist but full sets seem to be very rare."
The collection is accompanied by Bidwell's three-page typed list (in duplicate), titled "List Showing Present Owners of Eggs of the Great Auk."
These striking silver-print photographs have an eerie, almost lunar, quality. Presumably most of them were not published until Fuller's volume appeared in 1999.