The Crown Bird from Mexico FROM A Natural History of Birds : illustrated with a hundred and one copper plates, curiously engraven from the life by Albin, Eleazar - 1737

London: Printed for the Author, 1737. First edition.

1737 THE TURACO, FROM THE FIRST BIRD BOOK TO INCLUDE COLOR PLATES HANDCOLORED BY THE AUTHOR AND HIS DAUGHTER.

9x11 1/4 inches handcolored engraving from Eleazar Albin's Natural History of Birds. Bright, bold colors, heavy paper, very good.

ELEAZAR ALBIN (1690 – 1742) was an English naturalist and watercolorist illustrator who wrote and illustrated a number of books including A Natural History of English Insects (1720), A Natural History of Birds (1731–38) and The Natural History of Spiders and other Curious Insects (1736). Nothing is known of Albin's early life, though he may have been German-born; he claimed to have been in Jamaica in 1701. In 1708 he is known to have been married and living in Piccadilly, London. Albin taught watercolor painting before being instructed in natural history by silk weaver and naturalist Joseph Dandridge. A Natural History of Birds has colored engravings by Albin and his daughter Elizabeth Albin. In that book Albin writes "As for the paintings, they are all done from life, with all the exactness I could either with my own hand, or my daughter's, whom I have taught to draw and paint after the life". This was the first book on birds to include color plates. Fewer than 100 copies were printed, accounting for its rarity.

THE TURACO is one of very few bird families endemic to Africa, where they live in forests, woodland and savanna. Turacos are the only living bird taxa that have any significant green pigment whatsoever, as the greens of many parrots etc. are due to structural color, not pigment. This may explain the deep green color chosen by Albin for the head and breast in this print. Although non-migratory, turacos have been prized across the world for centuries, accounting for Albin's ascribing its residence to Mexico.