Illustrations for 'The ornithology of Australia' series, ca. 1860-1875 / drawn by Silvester Diggles; and prints and hand coloured plates of 'The ornithology of Australia', 1863-1875

PXE 1599/1-2

fonds

ca. 1860-1875

Graphic Materials, Textual Records, Drawings

1060959

15 drawings - watercolour, pencil - 38.0 x 28.0 cm or smaller
37 prints - 19 hand watercoloured - 38.0 x 28.0 cm or smaller

Silvester Diggles (1817-1880) was born in Liverpool, England and became a naturalist, artist and musician. He arrived in Australia with his family in 1853 to Sydney and in 1855 moved to Brisbane where he became prominent in music and scientific circles, teaching both drawing and music and repairing musical instruments. He was a founding member of the Brisbane Choral Society established in 1859 and later in 1861, the Brisbane Philharmonic Society. Pious, he became an active member and leader in the New Jerusalem Church. Diggles was simultaneously scientifically minded, helping found the colony's first scientific institution the Queensland Philosophical Society, in 1859. His most consuming naturalist passions were ornithology and entomology. He is renowned for publishing The ornithology of Australia which was issued in 21 parts between 1863-1875. Each part contained six lithographed hand-coloured plates, imperial quarto size, accompanied by a page of descriptive text about the bird. Between 1863 and 1875, Diggles, made 325 detailed watercolour paintings depicting about 600 Australian land birds, as the preliminary artwork for his plates, held at Mitchell Library ML Ref: PXA 1525.

References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography
www.adb.anu.edu.au Accessed September 10, 2013

PXE 1599/1
Fifteen original watercolours by Diggles in various sizes include:

1. Plate 16. Astur Radiatus (approximans) Radiated Goshawk
2. Turnix Melanogaster Black breasted Hemipode Male; T. Melanogaster Female; Turnix Varius Varied Hemipode (numbered 29 in pencil on verso)
3. Strix Tenebriosus Sooty Owl (numbered 32 in pencil on verso)
4. Strix Personatus Masked Owl (Cockatoos preparatory pencil drawing and numbered 36 in pencil on verso)
5. Strepera Fuliginosa Sooty Shrike (bird drawing in pencil on verso)
6. Podiceps Gularis Black throated Grebe; Foot of P. Gularis; Podiceps Poliocephalus Hoary headed Grebe (Adrea Novae Hollandiae White fronted Heron and Ardea Pacifica Pacific Heron preparatory watercolour and numbered 33 in pencil on verso)
7. Plate 22 Milvus Isurus Square tailed Kite (Chladorhynclius pectoralis Banded Stilt and Himantopus leucocephalus White headed Stilt pencil drawings, numbered 5 in pencil on verso)
8. Gymnorhina Tibicien Piping Shrike; Gymnorhina Organicum Tasmanian Shrike (Streperu Granculina pencil drawing and numbered 42 in pencil on verso)
9. 1. Halcyon Sanctus Sacred Halcyon; 2. Halcyon McLeay McLeay’s Halcyon (watermark 1861)
10. Plate 8. Falco Melanogenys Black cheeked Falcon (numbered 15 in pencil on verso)
11. Callocephalon Galeatum Gang Gang Cockatoo
12. Ardetta Macororhyncha Thick billed Green Bittern (JW Hatman 1864 watermark)
13. Ardea Novae Hollandiae White fronted Heron (Adrea Novae Hollandiae White fronted Heron and Ardea Pacifica Pacific Heron preparatory pencil drawings and numbered 2 in pencil on verso)
14. Aquila Fucosa Wedge tailed eagle (a little reduced) (numbered 13 in pencil on verso)
15. Plate 25 Baza Subcristata Crested Hawk (numbered 35 in pencil on verso)

Watermarks on some paper stock of the illustrations are the same as those in bound volumes at ML Ref: PXA 1525, and the sheets are of a similar size. The watercolours are less finished than those in the bound volumes of Diggles works, being somewhat incomplete and showing no background scenery. Manuscript titles labelling species below each watercolour image appear to be by the same hand as those in the bound volumes at PXA 1525. While alternative images of some species depicted in these watercolours were published in his series 'The ornithology of Australia', some of the species of birds depicted in this collection were not published, and are also not featured in the bound volumes at ML Ref: PXA 1525. On the verso of 3 watercolours there are preparatory sketche's for 2 of the finished watercolours contained in the bound volumes PXA 1525, published in The ornithology of Australia'.

PXE 1599/2
The collection includes 37 prints from 'The ornithology of Australia by Diggles, all illustrated plates of birds except one have been hand water coloured. The collection includes two marbled endpapers from an unknown portfolio that appear to fit the proportions of the pages of published 'The ornithology of Australia' text.

Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales