Corvus Corax, Linn. [Raven]
[London]. Walter (printer), [1862- 1873]. Stock ID #174325 A striking plate of this legendary creature (no. 57) from Gould's monumental "Birds of Great Britain" (1862-1873). When referring to this item please quote stockid 174325.
Fine hand coloured lithograph heightened with gum arabic, 56 x 38.5cm (sheet size), small stitch holes to the inner margin. A very good example in clean, bright condition.
In the text to the plate Gould records that the composition owes itself to the Duke of Argyll who saw "...a Raven sporting about in the air, with something strange in its bill, which, after a time, it fell to the ground. On examination it proved to be the expanded cone of a silver fir. However singular this freak of the bird may have been, it was attended with a circumstance of no ordinary interest; for the cone was covered with a parasitic plant (Phelonites strobilina) so very rare that few botanists possess it, and there was nota specimen in the British Museum until, the Duke having kindly presented the cone to me, I transferred it, with the rare fungus still attached, to the national collection."
Price: $1,250.00 AU