A GEORGE III EMBOSSED BIRD-PICTURE by Isaac Spackman in basso relievo and depicting an ouapoke, in a later pink-painted and parcel-gilt frame, signed lower right Spackman.Pinxit/London 1765 and with handwritten label to the reverse OUAPOKE THIS RARE BIRD WAS THE FIRST OF THE KIND SEEN IN ENGLAND AND HAS NOT BEEN DESCRIBED BY ANY OF OUR NATURAL HISTORIANS IT.... FROM SOUTH AMERICA

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN (Lots 30-36) The following seven lots are mid-18th Century embossed bird pictures of the type of which Samuel Dixon of Dublin is the most famous maker. The best of his successors and competitors was Isaac Spackman of Islington. Both produced long sets of images, usually twelve pictures in all, between 1748 and 1765. Their source was usually George Edwards, Natural History of Uncommon Birds, 1743 and 1747. They are both discussed by Ada.K.Longfield in two articles in The Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, October 1975 (Longfield, 1975), and January 1980 (Longfield, 1980) and in one in Country Life, 25 January 1979, pp.196-197 (Longfield, 1979)

Details

A GEORGE III EMBOSSED BIRD-PICTURE by Isaac Spackman in basso relievo and depicting an ouapoke, in a later pink-painted and parcel-gilt frame, signed lower right Spackman.Pinxit/London 1765 and with handwritten label to the reverse OUAPOKE THIS RARE BIRD WAS THE FIRST OF THE KIND SEEN IN ENGLAND AND HAS NOT BEEN DESCRIBED BY ANY OF OUR NATURAL HISTORIANS IT.... FROM SOUTH AMERICA
15½ X 13IN. (39.5 X 33CM.)

Lot Essay

THIS SUBJECT APPEARS TO BE UNRECORDED AND THE INSCRIPTION SUGGESTS THAT IT HAD NOT PREVIOUSLY BEEN USED BY SPACKMAN'S IRISH PREDECESSOR, SAMUEL DIXON. THE DATE AND RARITY SUGGEST THAT IT IS ONE OF THE VERY LAST PICTURES FROM SPACKMAN'S SET OF SINGLE BIRD-PICTURES ISSUED FROM 1764.

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