JOSEF WOLF (1820 - 1899) AND JOSEF SMIT (1836 - 1929)

These 12 framed prints are taken from a copy of the author's fifth illustrated monograph, one of the most admired bird books ever produced. Eliott regards 'brightly coloured waving plumes' as a typical characteristic rather than an indispensable feature of this beautiful species which are organised into three subfamilies, Paradiseai, containing the typical Birds of Paradise and their allies, Epimachinae, those species 'characterised by long, slender, somewhat curved bills', and Tectonarchinae, 'species which are in the habit of erecting bowers'. In the introduction, which includes a bibliography and treatment of the classification, genera and geographical distribution, he notes that of the thirty-six species included in the monograph, 'twenty-two are known to inhabit New Guinea; and of these, twelve are met with in no other part of the world.... Some species are restricted, in certain cases, to one single group of islands -- while others inhabit several situated widely apart.'