A Conjugal Feathursday
Conjugal Relations and Their Consequences
This week we present more sentimental wood engravings of sparrows from Animate Creation by the English natural history popularizer J. G. Wood (1827-1889), published in New York in three volumes by Selmar Hess in 1885. The 3-volume set (volume 2 is dedicated to birds) includes scores of wood engravings and many chromolithographs. The message of the engraving of birds and bees is not lost on us, but we wonder about the intended Victorian audience.
These wood engravings were made by the French engraver Ădouard Berveiller (fl. 1874â1894) from drawings by the French naturalist artist and wood engraver Hector Giacomelli (1822-1904). We believe that the sentimental image showed a few weeks ago is supposed to be a part of this family narrative.
Our copy of Animate Creaton is a revised edition, adapted to American zoology by the American physician and zoologist Joseph B. Holder, of an earlier British publication by Wood first published in London by George Routledge as The Illustrated Natural History in 1853.
View more posts from this publication.
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