Lot 40: WILSON, Alexander (1766-1813) – A selection of watercolors copied from “Ame

WILSON, Alexander (1766-1813) – A selection of watercolors copied from “American Ornithology” by Thomas Howitt. [England,] 1827. An album of annotated watercolors after Wilson’s American Ornithology. This handsome manuscript was created by Thomas Howitt, an amateur ornithologist possibly related to the painter Samuel Howitt. The delicate watercolors reproduce portions of Wilson’s original plates, with notes copied from the text. The Coe Ornithological Collection at Yale holds a similar manuscript by Howitt, described in the Yale University Library Gazette as “of fundamental importance in the history of American ornithology.” An unidentifed manuscript at the McGill library on bird eggs may be by the same creator. Howitt is cited in William Yarrell’s 1843 A History of British Birds as a source of information about the Little Sandpiper. See S. Dillon Ripley, “The Coe Ornithological Collection,” The Yale University Library Gazette, October 1952, p. 68. Oblong quarto album (232 x 363mm). 70 watercolor drawings, each with manuscript caption and page of description (occasional faint ofsetting). Modern maroon half morocco; custom box. Provenance: Thomas Howitt (bookplate).