A hand coloured antique print entitled La Maubéche.
From ‘Histoire Naturelle Des Oiseaux’ by George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
Published by L’Imprimerie Royale, Paris between 1770 and 1786.
Engraved by Tardieu.
36 volumes of Histoire Naturelle were published during the author’s lifetime with a further eight being produced after his death by Leclerc’s friend Bernard Germain de Lacépède.
Born a man of modest circumstance George-Louis Leclerc secured a massive inheritance from his godfather. With this he travelled to Paris where, after some study, he earned a position as Head of Le Jardin du Roi, a major botanical garden in the city. Here he started his studies of plants and animals in earnest, collecting vast numbers of botanical and zoological specimens and turning the park into an institute of research.
La Maubéche translates as Red knot. The RedKnot is a medium sized species of wading bird native the Arctic Cordillera in the far North of Canada, Europe and Russia. It feeds on spiders, Gastropoda, small crabs and bivalves. .
Size: 27 x 19.5 cms or 10 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches.
Coloured part of image: 19.3 x 15.2 cms or 7 5/8 x 6 inches.
Condition: Near Fine. The coloured part of the plate is fresh and clean. The white surround has browned and is lightly foxed. The paper upon which the engraving was printed is uneven in shape. This is normal for the period of manufacture. There are two pieces of paper stuck to the reverse side. These were probably used at some point to affix the print to a mount.
