Beschreibung:

GERMAN SCHOOL, 18TH CENTURY An album of original drawings of birds. [Germany: mid-18th century]. 2 (411 x 309mm). 40 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS IN WATERCOLOUR AND BODYCOLOUR of birds, 2 on one sheet, 2 double-page, the eared owl drawing folded at bottom edge, and one original drawing of a weasel, all but one (a cormorant) by the same artist, on rectos only, all on guards. Paper watermarked IHS within rayed sun and initials MPW below, not in Heywood, etc. (Occasional spotting, corner of one drawing lightly creased.) 18th-century mottled calf (neatly restored, rebacked). An album of 18th Century ornithological watercolours depicting 40 birds, all but one by the same artist. The birds are finely drawn with detailed lines, almost suggesting preparatory drawings for engraving. The birds were clearly drawn from nature, and in a number of cases are depicted as if alighting or just having caught an insect. An eared owl, sparrowhawk, pheasant, water rail, crossbill, partridge, dipper and ring ouzels join smaller birds, all of which could be found in western as well as central Europe. Although the artist remains anonymous, he (or she) was an accomplished contemporary of great German illustrators such as Frisch and Barbara Regina Dietzsch; there is some similarity between these drawings and those of Susemihl, active a few decades later. The presence of one drawing of a weasel, also by the same artist, points to skills and experience broader than bird illustration, and may indicate participation in a larger natural history project. Talented natural history artists were particularly active in Nuremberg and Augsburg in the 18th-century, and the artist of these fine drawings is perhaps from this area.