Croatian and Egyptian pigeons - Archangels and Swifts - perch on a roof in this artwork painted by British artist Joseph W Ludlow (1840-1916) for the rare 'Illustrated Book of Pigeons with Standards for Judging', also known as 'Cassell's Pigeon Book', which was written by Robert Fulton and first published in 1876 with 50 chromolithograph colour plates.
Archangels from Croatia meet Swifts from Egypt on a roof in this depiction of two contrasting breeds of fancy pigeon painted by 19th century British artist Joseph Williamson Ludlow for the 'Illustrated Book of Pigeons with Standards for Judging', first published in 1876. Archangels, the two birds at the top of the image, are a very old breed believed to have originated from Illyria, in classical antiquity a large region in the western Balkans, and from Dalmatia, a narrow strip of land along the Adriatic Sea that was one of the four historical regions of Croatia. They have dark orange eyes and their bronze or gold plumage has a distinctive metallic sheen. Egyptian Swifts, with swept-back wings resembling the forked tails of their smaller and faster-flying namesakes, were developed over many years by pigeon fanciers in Egypt and are now found in many regional varieties. Generally, flying Egyptian Swifts are smaller than birds bred for showing. Joseph W Ludlow (1840-1916) specialised in portraying domestic birds, including various types of poultry. This artwork is one of 50 he painted for the 'Illustrated Book of Pigeons' that were reproduced as chromolithographs. The volume, written by Robert Fulton, was published by Cassell, Petter and Galpin and is also known as 'Cassell's Pigeon Book'. Over nearly 400 pages, it offered pigeon fanciers comprehensive knowledge and advice on breeding and raising fancy and ornamental birds. It sold well over several editions in the 1870s and 1880s and is still regarded as a useful reference work. However, complete examples in good condition with all of the pages and colour plates intact are now very rare.
Size: 8637px × 12094px
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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