JOHN ABBOT (BRITISH, 1751-1840) Drawings in Natural History - Birds

JOHN ABBOT’S
Ornithological Masterpieces
of the
American Southeast

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JOHN ABBOT (BRITISH, 1751-1840)

Drawings in Natural History – Birds

 An album containing two hundred and twenty-one watercolors

The first signed and dated ‘J. Abbot ad vivum delin. Nov. 1815’ in red ink in the lower margin, the majority titled in pencil in the lower margins, the sheets numbered from 1 to 221 (upper right),several inscribed (or with cropped inscriptions) on the upper edge on the reverses (‘Its note in March, is like the creacking of a sign board in Windy weather’ [Lanius Excubitor Carolinensis, GreyShrike]), Knowsley library location recorded on the front free endpaper (‘Knowsley / ... Library /East Division / North Bookcase B / Shelf 2 No 6’)

Pencil and watercolor on paper, large quarto, marbled endpapers, the 13th Earl of Derby’s book plate on the front pastedown, contemporary red morocco gilt, spine lettered  ‘Drawings in Natural History / Birds / by J. Abbot,’ gilt edges

1802-1815

Sheets 11 7/8 x 9 ¼ in.; the album 12 1/4 x 10 1/4 in.

Provenance: John Abbot to Joshua Elder White, to Edward Smith Stanley, later the thirteenth Earl of Derby, in 1817