1879 MORRIS 6 H/C ANTIQUE BIRDS EGG PRINTS KITE

A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds

By

Morris Francis Orpen

Lot of 6 antique hand coloured birds egg prints

KITE, SWALLOW-TAILED KITE, HONEY BUZZARD, ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD, BUZZARD, OSPREY

Prints are accompanied by the original descriptive text

Francis Orpen Morris was born on 25 March 1810, the eldest son of Admiral Henry Gage Morris, near Cork, whilst his father was on active service on the Royal Navy's Irish station. The family moved to England in 1824, living initially in Worcester, and, from 1826, in Charmouth, Dorset. His interest in natural history began whilst a pupil at Bromsgrove School, when he began to collect birds and insects. He left school in 1828 and, following a year with a private tutor, went up to Worcester College Oxford the following year.  Much of his time as a student Morris spent in the study of natural history, and one of his part-time tasks included arranging the collection of insects in the Ashmolean Museum. It was at Nafferton that his reputation as a popular writer on natural history in general and birds in particular began to grow. His first book had appeared as early as 1834, A guide to an arrangement of British birds. However, his association with Benjamin Fawcett, a local printer, was to have remarkable results, particularly for the study of ornithology. Benjamin Fawcett was one of the finest of the nineteenth century woodblock colour printers. Born in Bridlington in December 1808, he was the son of a ship's master. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed for seven years to William Forth, a Bridlington bookseller and printer. In 1831 he set up in business as a bookseller, bookbinder, music seller, printer and stationer, in Middle Street, Driffield. His first association with FO Morris was in 1844 or 1845, and was to last nearly 50 years. Morris produced the text for books, which Fawcett financed and printed, which were usually illustrated by AF (Frank) Lydon (1836-1917), who had started as one of Fawcett's apprentices. Unlike the earlier work of Thomas Bewick, printing was in colour. This was initially achieved by hand colouring wood-engraved illustrations, and later by printing in colours from multiple wood blocks. Their first great success was A History of British birds, work on which probably began in 1848. Publication, which took over seven years to complete from June 1850, was undertaken in monthly parts costing one shilling. Each part contained 24 pages of letterpress and 4 hand-coloured plates. The final six-volume work contained 358 coloured plates. One thousand copies of the first part were initially produced, but such was the demand that Fawcett quickly had to move into larger premises (East Lodge, Driffield). Birds was quickly followed by A natural history of the nests and eggs of British birds and A history of British butterflies, followed later by A history of British moths. The firm of Groombridge failed in about 1880, and it appears that neither Fawcett nor Morris made much money from their joint ventures. Ref: Nissen ZBI 645, Fine birds book pp125.

Date: 1879

Size: approximately 9 3/4" x 6 ", 250mm x 150mm

Condition: very good; we provide very accurate images, please have a look at them and make your own final judgement.

 

 

 

 

Note: we do not sell reproductions all items are original antiques. We are always happy to answer any queries you may have about old prints and hope you enjoy bidding on our items. We will always try to present clear pictures, good descriptions and honest merchandise.

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