Osprey, Female Plate IV

From a rare black and white edition of Prideaux John Selby’s “Illustrations of British Ornithology”. They have recently been professionally hand-colored with extreme accuracy. These engravings are printed on elephant folio paper and watermarked J Whatman and dated 1924. P.J. Selby (1788-1867) was the only artist other than Audubon to depict every bird in its actual size. Selby, an ornithologist and an artist, engraved many of his large folio plates himself. This print is signed in the plate and there is a crease on the right side but not in the image itself. The top margin has two tears and the bottom margin has one tear.