Lot Essay
Samuel Dixon of Dublin was made famous by his sets of embossed bird and flower pictures issued between 1748 and 1755. These two pictures are from his largest set, issued in 1755, and known as 'Foreign and Domestick Birds'.
The pictures incorporate a technique, which Dixon called basso relievo, whereby parts of the design are raised by means of a copper plate and then colored in gouache. Dixon's first basso relievo set of twelve formal flower arrangements was advertised on the 26th April 1748 in 'Faulkner's Dublin Journal'. This article invited the 'Nobility and Gentry' to purchase these pictures which were 'not only ornamental in Lady's chambers but useful to paint and draw after or imitate in shell or needle work.' These very popular 'Flower Pictures' encouraged Dixon to produce a 'Sett of curious Foreign Bird Pieces' advertised the following year. The designs for these pictures were taken directly from the first volumes of George Edwards' Natural History of Uncommon Birds, 1743-51, as were the descriptive labels on the back of each picture. The labels also indicated a member of nobility to whom each design was dedicated.
The pictures incorporate a technique, which Dixon called basso relievo, whereby parts of the design are raised by means of a copper plate and then colored in gouache. Dixon's first basso relievo set of twelve formal flower arrangements was advertised on the 26th April 1748 in 'Faulkner's Dublin Journal'. This article invited the 'Nobility and Gentry' to purchase these pictures which were 'not only ornamental in Lady's chambers but useful to paint and draw after or imitate in shell or needle work.' These very popular 'Flower Pictures' encouraged Dixon to produce a 'Sett of curious Foreign Bird Pieces' advertised the following year. The designs for these pictures were taken directly from the first volumes of George Edwards' Natural History of Uncommon Birds, 1743-51, as were the descriptive labels on the back of each picture. The labels also indicated a member of nobility to whom each design was dedicated.