The Rickeybird Scrapbook Update
8/7/2016
My own art is quite contemporary, but I have always admired the amazing bird illustrations done by the English artist and author Edward Lear.(1812-88). He is most famous for his prints of parrots and toucans. I have one of his original signed toucans on my mantle. He also loved nonsense poems and humor... he wrote "The Owl and the *****cat", for instance. [Woopsie... kitty got censored!]
Here are a couple of examples. I've had them for years, but they're going into the official Scrapbook today! Of course, both are Rickeybirds!
Reproduction of a print from the most rare and valuable series of Lear parrots, "Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae", 1830-2. This one is post-card size; the original folios are about 23 x 25 inches.
Note that a Rickeybird was called Patagonian Parakeet-macaw (Psittacara patagonica). Today, they are Patagonian Conures (Cyanolesius patagonus). They're called Loros Barranqueros (Burrowing Parrots) in their native land.
This print is authentic, and mine. It's a small octavo print, about 4 x 7 inches. It's a hand-colored steel engraving from the 1836 volume of parrots in "The Naturalist's Library". By this time, a Rickeyburd was called a Patagonian Arara (Arara patagonica).