In the days when colour printing was extremely expensive, the Avicultural Society had special appeals for funds to support the appearance in Avicultural Magazine of the occasional colour plate. A well-known bird artist was then commissioned. Although the whole run of the Society’s magazines can be found online, the plates rarely see the light of day. Therefore I decided to show one, now and again, on this site. This is the 13th in the series.
– – – – – – – – – –
The artist was John Cyril Harrison (1898-1985). For most of his life he lived in Norfolk. He trained at the Slade after the First World War and became well known for his wildlife paintings, especially birds. He was a regular visitor to Scotland, parts of Africa and Iceland. He was prolific and his work often appears in auctions.
The short article accompanying this plate was written by Philip Wayre (1921-2014) who in 1959 had founded the Ornamental Pheasant Trust. He also had a small zoo at Great Witchingham, the Norfolk Wildlife Park.
Philip Wayre wrote:
In 1958 two pairs of wild-caught Swinhoe’s were obtained from Formosa [Taiwan] by Dr K.C. Searle of Hong Kong. These were sent to England and were presented to the Ornamental Pheasant Trust, then in the process of formation, by Miss Kay Bonner and Mr A.A. Prestwich. From these birds two young cocks were reared that year and these have since been mated to home-bred birds. The Trust has, therefore, a much-needed change of blood with which to work.
Swinhoe’s Pheasant (Lophura swinhoii) is a Taiwan endemic. Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877) was of course responsible for its collection. It was named for him by Robert Gould in 1863. Guild insisted that he should describe and paint the entire collection that Swinhoe had brought back to London, or none at all.
Avicultural Magazine Vol 67, 1961
No comments:
Post a Comment