Synopses & Reviews
In 1828, at only sixteen years of age, Edward Lear (British, 1812-1888) embarked on an ambitious project: to draw all the known parrot species. The result, Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots (published in twelve parts, 1830-1832) contained forty-two elegant portraits. Lear had to abandon the project when he could no longer financially support its completion, but the folio was the first British publication on a single family of birds and reached 110 subscribers. Since only 175 copies of the original monograph were published, it is exceedingly rare today. The illustrations in this book represent the entirety of Lear's Parrots and were reproduced from a pristine, original edition in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History.