Lot 67: SPACKMAN, ISAAC.

Four original drawings of birds. English, 1760s

Condition Note:

4 sheets (c. 265 x 210mm.), watercolour and gouache drawings, 3 on paper, 1 on vellum, 3 examples with descriptive text on verso, slight toning to paper, some descriptive text cropped

fine eighteenth-century ornithological studies, all but one with accompanying descriptive manuscript notes. Spackman (d. 1771) "painted British and foreign birds in watercolours and gouache on vellum and also made embossed basso relieve paintings and coloured them by hand" (Jackson, Dictionary of Bird Artists). In manner, his style closely resembles that of George Edwards. This group comprises "Blue Linnet" (on vellum, captioned and signed at top, notes on verso), "Yellow crown'd Parrakeet" (signed and captioned at top, notes on verso), two unidentified South American birds (signed notes on verso), and two further unidentified specimens.

Spackman's captions are quite detailed: for instance, the notes on the verso of the blue linnet give a reference to Edwards, and also discuss Catesby's treatment of the bird, and its Carolina habitat, at some length. Of the parakeet, Spackman notes its propensity to hang upside-down, observing that "in this manner they sleep, and I have very rarely observed [them in] any other attitude except at the times of their feeding".