Lot 76: *Miller (John Frederick, 1759-1796). Cuculus

*Miller (John Frederick, 1759-1796). Cuculus Indicator [&] Fringilla Cyanocapilla, Drawn and Painted by J. F. Miller, 1782, two fine and rare original pen and ink and watercolour drawings on one folio sheet, both birds (identified as A and B) on a small branch and facing left, identified Tab XXIV in ink upper left and with Miller's dated neat inkinscription at foot, pencil identification in block capitals in a later unidentified hand at foot of sheet, the drawings one above the other contained within an area of approx. 30 x 21cm on one side of a sheet of laid paper with the watermarks of I. Villedary (name and ornamented crown with fleur-de-lys), a few minor marks and two small closed tears to blank areas of sheet, sheet size 49.5 x 33.5cm. Both these South African birds (modern names Indicator indicator and unidentified) appeared as plate 24 in John Frederick Miller, 'Icones animalium...' published in 1785. It is a very rare (and nomenclaturally important) book with only two incomplete copies known to survive.. A second edition with text by George Shaw was published in 1796 with the title 'Cimelia physica, figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c., together with several of the most elegant plants'. The work has a total of sixty plates, mostly ornithological but including animals and plants, and many of these were probably coloured by Miller himself.. John Frederick Miller, son of the botanical artist John Miller, had been employed by Sir Joseph Banks, receiving from him numerous zoological specimens and information from which he made drawings. He also drew many of the artefacts collected on Captain Cook's 'Endeavour' voyage of 1768-71, and with his brother James was to have accompanied Banks on Cook's second voyage. When that plan failed, John Frederick accompanied Banks to the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Iceland in 1772. His drawings from that expedition are now held in the Natural History Museum, London. No original drawings by Miller being offered for sale have been noted. See Fine Bird Books, p. 94; Nissen IVB 638. (1)
NOTE: the buyer's premium is 20.56%.