Botanical Prints with Birds, Insects, & Animals
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| Blue Banana Bird at Rio de Janeiro on a sprig of the Guava Tree |
Humming Birds at the Brasils with nest on the Orange Tree | Spotted Kingfisher and singular frog on coast of Malabar |
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| Mazagon Mango of Bombay and Papilio Bolina | Blue Lizard and Neva Tree | Green Pigeon and Cur Champhah of the Concan |
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| The Mahwhaw Tree of Guzerat | Blue Locust and Faggot Caterpillar in Guzerat | Skeleton Mantis and Oil Plant of Guzerat |
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James Forbes (1749-1819) (after) |
Set of nine prints after drawings by James Forbes, from Oriental Memoirs, an important early British account of the peoples and natural history of India that also included observations on parts of Africa and South America. Forbes’ drawings were translated into engravings to illustrate his vivid descriptions of his travels, published in four volumes beginning in 1813, almost 30 years after his return from India. The engravings, in the Anglo-Indian taste, present a series of inventive compositions incorporating plants, birds, insects, and exotic animals such as brightly-hued lizards and frogs. Travel works such as this one were highly popular in Britain as the expansion of the British Empire fueled a curiosity about these faraway and exotic cultures and landscapes. James Forbes was born in London to a Scotch Protestant family. In 1765, he first traveled to Bombay as a writer for the East India Company, and spent most of the years until 1784 in residence there. He filled 52,000 manuscript pages with notes on all aspects of Indian life and culture, including descriptions of wildlife and personal encounters with the people. After returning to England, he married and thereafter traveled extensively on the European continent. His life in India later formed the basis of the four-volume Oriental Memoirs, described in its subtitle as “selected and abridged from a series of familiar letters written during seventeen years residence in India: including observations on parts of Africa and South America, and a narrative of occurrences in four India voyages.” This work remains a valued document of the natural history and culture of late 18th century India, by both Western and Indian scholars. Forbes also published a work in 1810 advocating the conversion of the Hindus to Christianity. William Hooker was a British botanical artist, particularly esteemed for his depictions of fruit, who gave his name to the paint color Hooker’s Green. He served as the official artist to the Horticultural Society of London from 1812 to 1820 and regularly illustrated their Transactions. After studying botanical illustration with Francis Bauer, he co-published the botanical periodical Paradisus Londinensis with R.A. Salisbury from 1805 to 1808. Hooker engraved the drawings of James Forbes for Oriental Memoirs (1813-15). He was no relation to his contemporary Sir William Jackson Hooker, a famous botanist who was director of Kew Gardens. White, Cochrane and Co. was a London publishing and bookselling firm in business between 1812 and 1816. One of the partners, John White, worked for 20 years prior in publishing businesses with his father and brother or under his own name, producing catalogs, music imprints and other works. Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning, wear, scattered soft creases and faint soiling. References: Blunt, Wilfred, rev. by Stearn, William T. The Art of Botanical Illustration. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club, 1994. p. 233. Goyau, Georges. “Comte de Montalembert.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10. Robert Appleton Company: 1911. Online ed. 2003 by K. Knight. NewAdvent.org. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10513b.htm (4 April 2005). Maxted, Ian. Maxted, Ian. "The London book trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members." Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History. U.K.: Devon Library and Information Services. 20 June 2001. http://www.devon.gov.uk/library/locstudy/bookhist/lonw.html (4 April 2005). |