Trochilus Buffonii, Native Brazil (Buffon's Humming-Bird)

Object NamePrint

Artist / Maker Walter Home Lizars (Scottish, 1788 - 1859)

Date1854

MediumPrint

Dimensions3 3/4 × 6 1/2 in. (9.5 × 16.5 cm) Other (Framed): 10 × 12 3/4 in. (25.4 × 32.4 cm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineTranferred from Home Management Department. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number74.10.64b

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureScottish

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: In Victorian times, there was a heightened fascination with the natural world and book illustrations richly provided access to exotic species in the home. William Home Lizars (1788–1859), a Scottish painter, engraver, and publisher, perfected a high relief method of etching away the background of a copper plate to produce a relief surface like a wood engraving. In the years 1833−43, Lizars published The Naturalist’s Library, a series of forty volumes on Ornithology (fourteen volumes), Mammalia (thirteen volumes), Entomology (seven volumes), and Ichthyology (six volumes), each prepared by a leading naturalist. This engraving is part of a series of ﬁnely engraved and hand-colored prints by Lizars for Sir William Jardine (1800−1874), a naturalist who specialized in ornithology. Jardine’s edited Naturalist’s Library volume on hummingbirds was published in London circa 1845. Lizars produced over 1,200 prints of animal, fish, bird, and insect species for the series, and these engravings are considered by many the ﬁnest miniature nature portraits ever published. Five hummingbird prints and three other bird prints by Lizars are in the Farm House Museum’s permanent collection.

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