Lear, Edward

Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: the Greater Part of them Species hitherto Unfigured. London: Published by E. Lear, [1830–] 1832



Folio (21 3/8 x 14 1/2 in.; 544 x 368 mm). 42 very fine handcolored lithographed plates after and by Lear, 4 leaves of letterpress (title-page, list of subscribers, list of plates, dedication); some scattered marginal soiling and spotting, plate of Black-tailed Parrakeet foxed, short tear to lower margins of  plates of Pigeon Parrakeet and Hooded Parrakeet, text leaves slightly shorter than plates leaves (as issued, lower margins of text leaves preserving deckle). Contemporary half tan calf over marbled boards, marbled endpapers and edges; some staining; extremities rather rubbed.

Christie's London (4 June 2003, lot 107)

Ayer/Zimmer 380; Copenhagen/Anker 283; Fine Bird Books 87; Hyman, Lear's Birds 26, 28; Jackson, Lithography 35; McGill/Wood 429; Nissen, IVB 536; Noakes 9c; Ray, England 90

First edition of the first illustrated ornithological work devoted to a single family of birds and the first English bird folio illustrated with lithographed plates. Lear's Parrots was the only separate ornithological work published by "perhaps the best of all bird painters" (Fine Bird Books), but it established a format and style that, as Lear himself later wrote, "led to all Mr. Gould's improvements": a single bird figured on each folio plate, drawn at life-size whenever possible, lithographed and colored by hand. The quality of Lear's illustrations, however, proved more difficult for other artists to emulate than their size and medium.

Lear was only eighteen when he began this project, but he controlled every step in the production of the plates, from his original sketches (made, whenever possible, from live specimens at the London Zoo) to taking numerous preliminary lithographs. "Lear became one of the most accomplished craftsmen among early lithographers. Certainly he was the first bird artist to appreciate the aesthetic possibilities in the grain of the lithographic stone, how it would be used to vary tone and sharpness of line, to render subtle textures and the gradation of closely-packed feathers. ... His best plates, those of the flamboyant parrots, reveal a rare sensibility, one that could combine the most exacting scientific naturalism with a masterly sense of design and intuitive sympathy for animal intelligence" (Hyman).

Lear's Parrots is among the rarest, as well the most beautiful, of all the great bird folios because Lear had his lithographic stones destroyed in order to protect his 124 subscribers.