Portraits of Rare and Curious Birds, by William Hayes - 1794: with their Descriptions, from the Menagery of Osterly Park

First volume only of the two-volume set with 100 plates published from 1794 to 1799.

56 finely hand-colored etched and stipple- and line-engraved plates, heightened with gum arabic, by William Hayes and members of his family. [The family worked chaotically, issuing volumes with different numbers of plates to subscribers.] With two unnumbered plates (the Erne and King of the Vultures) and 54 numbered plates (Pl. 3 to Pl. 56) with their text pages.

Second edition of this work on the birds of the famous menagerie at Osterley Park commissioned by the banker and politician Robert Child. Child may have obtained some of the exotic species from Asia and Africa from his business with the East India Company.

The birds include endangered species such as the purple-naped lory, Lorius domicella 27, blue-headed quail-dove, Starnoenas cyanocephala 41, horned currasow, Pauxi unicornis 49 and critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoo, Cacatua sulphurea 56.

Hayes was the first author to record a single private collection of live birds. The Menagerie at Osterley Park contained over 97 different species of bird, cared for by a Menagerie Man called Jonathan Chipps. Robert Child's widow, Sarah commissioned Hayes to paint the birds for a series of pictures which were later hung at the menagerie.

Some plates signed in ink W & M (1,2), Matilda (16, 25, 44), Annette & Emily (4, 6), Charles and William (3). Altogether seven members of his family or "pupils" collaborated on the venture: his wife Anne and children Charles, William, Annette, Emily, Maria and Matilda.

The first edition was a very small issue of Rare and Curious Birds Accurately Drawn from Specimens in the Menagery of Osterley Park distributed to a few people in 1782. This volume is the first part of the new edition published in 1794, followed by a second volume of 50 plates published in 1799. A third edition was issued by William Hayes' daughter Annette in 1846.

Condition: Leather binding scuffed and worn, both hinges very tender and cracking. Occasional spotting and blemishes to plates, mostly marginal, a few trimmed slightly shorter.