RARE and valuable 1st edition in good condition- Given the 125 year old vintage - stored carefully. Please see photos and message me with any questions.

First edition of this bold and colorful collection of 24 chromolithographic plates of exotic birds, accompanied by corresponding verses by the Detmolds’ uncle, Dr. Edward Barton Shuldham.

Edward Detmold and his twin brother Charles Maurice were accomplished animal artists from an early age. They were strongly influenced by Japanese prints in their uncle’s collection, and by the works of Albrect Dürer. Edward became “one of the best Edwardian animal illustrators” (Houfe, 115), primarily of children’s books, chief among them Kipling’s Jungle Book (1908), for which he and his brother created 16 animal paintings that were brilliant enough to warrant pre-publication in a separate portfolio in 1903. This magnificent children’s book of 24 exotic birds is the Detmolds’ first undertaking and stands as one of their best productions.

Marginal wear given the vintage. A good copy. Scarce. Inside back and front cover with some small staining and discoloration. Text pages and facing plates in overall good condition with minor staining.

Pictures from Birdland (1899), by Victorian artists Maurice and Edward Detmold with rhymes by their uncle, Edward Shuldham, is only one title from a small collection of children's books

original pictorial boards. London & New York, 1899.

***Scarce; commissioned by the publisher, J.M.Dent, from the Detmold twins when they were fifteen years old

* Wikipedia 2024 about the Detmold twins:

The twins subsequently mastered the techniques of watercolour etching and of colour printing with copper plates, buying a printing press and producing their own proofs at home.[3]

In 1898 they compiled a portfolio of colour etchings of animals and flowering plants done in the Japanese style. These were much sought after and were rapidly sold out. They collaborated on the etchings and illustrations for their first book Pictures From Birdland published in 1899. This book resulted from a number of drawings being shown in the autumn of 1897, to the publisher J. M. Dent, who was so impressed that the two brothers were asked to provide coloured illustrations for a book of his. The first title mooted was Alphabet of Birds, eventually becoming Pictures from Birdland. "Particularly noticeable are the early influences in the paintings, Edward's design for an osprey, with its unusual water effects, testifying to a Japanese contribution. Already apparent is that style in which a searching study of natural forms, especially bird plumage, is subordinated to the decorative arrangement" - David Larkin (The Fantastic Creatures of Edward Julius Detmold)[4] This was followed in 1900, by an exhibition at the Fine Art Society's Gallery in London.[5]