Beschreibung:

BONAPARTE, CHARLES LUCIEN]. ALEXANDER RIDER Seven original watercolor drawings, studies for illustrations to Charles-Lucien Bonaparte's American Ornithology (1825-33), executed c.1830-33. The pencil and watercolor drawings are unsigned, but are very probably by Rider, and most are identified as such by a later pencil inscription. With the exceptions of numbers 1 and 7 below, the figures are number-keyed in ink to neat ink annotations in the lower blank margins, apparently in Bonaparte's hand, identifying the subjects and in one case commenting caustically on their execution. All but the two smaller drawings (numbers 2 and 7 below) are highly finished studies, including background; and all are for four illustrations from volume 4 of Bonaparte's American Ornithology (published in 1833), as follows (the bird names are as given in the plates): 1) Pl. 22: Condor, 354 x 263 mm. (14 x 10 3/8 in.), corners torn, pinholes, two half-inch marginal tears, one just entering bottom of image , uninscribed. 2) Pl. 25: Wilson's Phalarope, Young, 276 x 209 mm. (10 7/8 x 8 7/8 in.) , study in reverse of engraved figure, inscribed "3. Young Wilson's Phalarope... No specimen is left but the old bird is already engraved." 3) Pl. 25: Variant of the entire plate, with the four birds in different positions, 266 x 337 mm. (10 1/2 x 13 1/4 in.), one or two light stains , inscribed at bottom, identifying species and commenting on the "Hyperborean Phalarope": "The feet are shamefully bad, the lobes out of place and not even the number preserved. The bill much too stout especially at tip...". 4) Pl. 26: Peale's Egret Heron and Esquimaux Carlew, 353 x 261 mm. (13 7/8 x 10 3/8 in.), corners torn and pinholed , species names inscribed, numbered "24" (instead of 26). 5) Pl. 26: Scolopaceous Courlan, variant coloring, 357 x 257 mm. (14 1/8 x 10 1/8 in.) , names inscribed, also numbered 24. 6) Pl. 27: Florida Gallinule and Yellow-Breasted Rail, 359 x 264 mm. (14 3/16 x 10 3/8 in.), a few small spots, a bit of very minor wrinkling , species names inscribed, the first as "Common Gallinule", and noted, "A specimen left" (of the Gallinule) and "Specimen in the N. York Museum" (of the Rail). 7) Pl. 27: Yellow-Breasted Rail, unfinished study, 165 x 95 mm. (6 7/8 x 3 3/8 in.) , uninscribed. Provenance : Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955) Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966). (7)