Eurasian curlew or common curlew (Numenius arquata)

Depiction: Scolopax Arquata (Eurasian Curlew).
By: Cornelius Nozeman (1720-1786) and Christiaan Sepp (1710-1775).
Technique: Original hand-colored copper-engraving.
Date of printing: 1770.

- Condition: very good condition. -

Original plate from Nederlandsche vogelen. An ornithological work produced by Cornelius Nozeman (1720-1786) and Christiaan Sepp (1710-1775). The work was published in five parts and published between 1770 and 1829. It was the first Dutch publication on birds and one of the most expensive, extensive and long-running publication from the history of Dutch book-publishing. The exact title was: Nederlandsche vogelen; volgens hunne huishouding, aert, en eigenschappen beschreeven door Nozeman, Cornelius. Alle naer ’t leeven geheel nieuw en naeuwkeurig getekend, in ’ t koper gebragt en natuurlyk gekoleurd door, en onder opzicht van Christiaan Sepp en Zoon. Amsterdam, J.C. Sepp en zoon, 1770. Two generations of publishers, five authors and numerous artists, engravers and colouring-artists helped to establish this lavish project. Birds were drawn from life or from stuffed examples. The production strived to depict the birds according to their natural size and that explains the large sizes of these prints (most of them appr. 56 x 39,5 cm.) Every drawing was engraved in copper and afterwards all prints had to be coloured by hand. This made this project very expensive to produce and therefore these prints were not published at once, but produced and ordered through issues. After fifty plates, a new title-page and a list of birds were issued. The work was finished after 59 years. On these 250 plates are 192 species of birds depicted.