1835 SIR WILLIAM JARDINE - HC WOOD ENGRAVING

"The Naturalist's Library. Entomology: Beetles"

Endorsed by James Duncan, Member of the Wernerian Society

Engravings by W. H. Lizars

Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet of Applegirth, Dumfriesshire (1800 - 1874) was a Scottish naturalist.

1870

One of the finest and most thorough studies of natural history in the nineteenth century fell under the direction of Sir William Jardine.
He made natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing and issuing the hugely popular 40 volumes of "The Naturalist's Library"
(1833-1842) with hand colored wood engravings and descriptions of all vertebrate species divided into 4 sections: mammals, birds, fish and insects,
each prepared by a leading naturalist. Jardine commissioned experts throughout Europe to write individual volumes on their fields of animal studies.
But perhaps the greatest accomplishment of this nine-year undertaking was that each book contained at least thirty splendid engravings by W. H. Lizars.
These engravings - some introducing newly discovered species, others portraying now extinct animals - have for over a century and a half been considered
to be among the finest pictorial representations of their kind. The engravings were always colored by artists before publication, and only the subject was
hand-colored leaving the background illustration as the original black engraving.

William Home Lizars (1788 - 1859) was an eminent Scottish engraver and painter of topographical views, decorative and historical subjects.
His natural history engravings rank among the finest of the early nineteenth century. Training at the Trustee’s Academy of Edinburgh, Lizars quickly
gained a strong reputation for his graphic work in all fields. From 1820, however, he concentrated almost solely upon the field for which he is best
remembered, natural history subjects. Whether his work is in the field of delicate miniature engravings, such as this example, or in his large plates
for Audubon’s Birds of America, his reputation as one of the finest naturalist engravers in the history of the art stands unchallenged.

SIZE:
approx. 4.21" x 6.54" / ca. 10,7 cm x 16,6 cm