Wilhelm becker lithographer (1 résultats)

Oblong folio. (10 3/8 x 13 7/8 inches). 25 hand-colored lithographed plates after Edouard Travies. Publisher's decorated cloth boards, all edges gilt A rare Philadelphia ornithological album of 25 hand-coloured lithographs for a bilingual (in German and English) American market. In this vibrant ornithological album, the plates are arranged geographically, beginning with America, followed by Europe, Asia, and Australia. American birds predominate, including hummingbirds, while the Australian section includes parrots and birds-of-paradise. The compositions show a clear homage to the ornithological work of Édouard Traviès de Villers, with birds placed in fully developed settings of foliage, insects, branches, and landscape. This richer pictorial treatment gives the album a decorative character beyond that of a simple species book, while preserving the appeal of mid-nineteenth-century natural history illustration. Weik & Wieck, styling themselves "Publishers & Importers," appear to have functioned chiefly as importers and distributors of European-made illustrated books for sale in Philadelphia. The bilingual captions, in English and German, suggest an intended audience among the city's German-speaking readers, while also allowing the plates to circulate in German-language markets.…