A hand coloured antique print entitled La Merle De Roche.
From ‘Histoire Naturelle Des Oiseaux’ by George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
Published by L’Imprimerie Royale, Paris between 1770 and 1786.
Engraved by Thomas Rousselet.
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.
The Merle de Roche, which translates as Rock Robin or Rock Blackbird, is a kind of thrush. It lives in mountains and meadows above an altitude of 1500m. It has a a melodious song and nests on the ground or in recesses in rock.
Size: 27 x 19.5 cms or 10 5/8 x 7 3/4 inches.
Size of the coloured part of the image: 19.5 x 15.2 cms or 7 3/4 x 6 inches.
Condition: Fine. The plate is clean and fresh. There is a light crease on the right hand side of the plate that is a flaw of manufacture. The page is of uneven shape. This is also a fault of manufacture quite typical of the period. There are two pieces of paper on the back of the plate that might once have held it in a mount.
