Five Blondinette pigeons, a compact, plump, fancy breed bred in several colours, with plumage laced with white and with feathered feet and feathery neck frills. High resolution scan of original chromolithograph plate in the rare 'Illustrated Book of Pigeons with Standards for Judging' by Robert Fulton (also known as 'Cassell's Pigeon Book'), reproduced from a painting by British bird artist, Joseph Williamson Ludlow (1840-1916).
Five varieties of Blondinette pigeon, a breed of compact, plump birds bred in several colours for showing, usually with the plumage more or less laced with white, and with tricoloured wings, feathered feet and feathery neck frills stretching down their chests. The five examples included in this late-19th century chromolithograph illustration - Blue, Black Spangled, Laced, Arrow Pointed and Brown Tipped - were depicted in a natural outdoor setting for a rare book published in the 1870s and 1880s. The image is one of the 50 colour plates illustrating 'The Illustrated Book of Pigeons with Standards for Judging', also known as 'Cassell's Pigeon Book', written by Robert Fulton and edited by Lewis Wright. All 50 were reproduced from original artworks painted by British ornithological artist Joseph Williamson Ludlow (1840-1916), who specialised in portraying domestic birds. He illustrated several other books on poultry and pigeons in the natural history series produced by publishers Cassell, Petter and Galpin. The Illustrated Book of Pigeons was first published in 1876. Over nearly 400 pages, it offered pigeon fanciers a comprehensive guide to breeding and raising fancy and ornamental pigeons in a convenient and relatively compact form. It ran through several editions and is still regarded as a useful reference work. However, complete examples in good condition with all pages intact are now very rare.
Size: 8075px × 9957px
Location: 'The Illustrated Book of Pigeons' by Robert Fulton, illustrated by Joseph Williamson Ludlow (1876)
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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