Magpie, Jay and Blue Thrush of China, Three Antique Bird Plates, 1806

This set of three original antique copper engravings, Plates 102, 103 and 108 from Sonnerat's Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine, is sold as one set. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. Plate 102 shows a russet magpie of China perched on a branch, its very long graduated tail sweeping down across the plate. Plate 103 shows a small jay of China perched on a branch, the rounded head and short stout bill drawn in profile. Plate 108 shows a blue thrush of China perched on a branch, the upright stance and straight bill shown in profile. Each sheet carries its engraved plate number at the upper right, the artist and engraver credits at the foot of the image and its caption lettered beneath.

Pierre Sonnerat published his Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine in Paris in 1782, and the plates were reissued in this separate folio volume by Dentu in 1806 under the title Collection de planches pour servir au Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine. Every image was drawn by Sonnerat himself during the voyage he made for the French crown between 1774 and 1781 and then cut on copper by the Paris engravers who worked for him. They are original copperplate engravings, printed from the intaglio plates onto laid paper. The engraved plate number stands at the upper right, the artist and engraver credits run along the foot of the image and the caption is lettered beneath. The sheets are uncolored, as the plate volume was issued.

The bird plates run for nearly thirty sheets through the middle of the volume and cover the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, Gingi and Pondicherry, Malacca, China, Madagascar and the Cape. Each bird is drawn at the full height of the plate against a plain ground, usually on a branch or a rock, with the plumage worked up line by line in the engraving. All three sheets are the same size and the same orientation and come from one volume of one book, which is why they are offered as a set and not one at a time. Sonnerat is remembered in the names of the things he found. The mangrove genus Sonneratia carries his name, so does the gray junglefowl Gallus sonneratii, and the botanical author abbreviation Sonn. stands for him. He was the first to put the name aye-aye into print, and the name indri entered European use through him as well. The plates in this volume are the record of that work.

Noticeable uneven toning on some sheets. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Scattered light foxing in the margins of all three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the three sheets.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. This item is sold unframed.