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Post by hewi on Jun 30, 2021 5:20:11 GMT -8
In an English antiquarian bookshop I found a book by Arthur Twidle from 1920 with the title:
Beautiful Butterflies of the tropics - how to collect them.
Arthur Twidle (1865? - 1936) was a well-known illustrator in his time.
He was best known for his illustrations of the Sherlock Holmes books.
But he must have collected butterflies himself, because in an autograph letter of 5 October 1920 to his brother,
which I found between the pages of the book, he wrote: "It is strange that my old hobby should have resulted in a book".
The book contains 13 glued-in plates (in the original watercolours) with tropical butterflies in "natural" surroundings.
The book does not claim to be scientific but is intended to
the beauty of tropical butterflies to a wider audience.
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Post by hewi on Jun 30, 2021 5:24:10 GMT -8
here another illustration  |
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Post by exoticimports on Jun 30, 2021 7:21:33 GMT -8
Wow. Do I understand correctly that each plate is hand painted, not copied?
Chuck
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Post by trehopr1 on Jun 30, 2021 8:13:57 GMT -8
A fantastic find indeed !
How fortunate you are to find such a unique book and with an original letter enclosed within the pages.
That is an interesting footnote within the letter; which is perhaps a little known part of that man's life --- being a hobbyist in the science.
The artwork is quite impressive and beautiful. To imagine it all done by hand; all the time and labor involved...
You may very well have a Master copy of the book perhaps even owned by the writer/artist himself !
Thank you for sharing such a "great" find with us.
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Post by trehopr1 on Jun 30, 2021 8:22:51 GMT -8
Hi Chuck,
The plates themselves are likely "hand colored" not painted. Still in all, a labor intensive effort put into each and every plate.
Multiply that times every book produced and you indeed have a real "labor of love" put into every copy. A passionate hobbyist...
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Post by trehopr1 on Jun 30, 2021 8:37:45 GMT -8
On a similar note, the well known lepidopterist Hermann Strecker whom was a sculptor by day and a lepidopterist at night also produced a monumentous work in three different parts in the latter part of his life (1870's +).
He too hand colored each and every plate in all three parts of his book.
And if you can believe this he made 500 copies in total !!
Nowadays, any copies are very exclusive to own. A few are known to be present in the "rare book sections" of a very few libraries. Also, a few fortunate collectors also have copies.
These too are very beautiful works and strecker was indeed passionate about his hobby.
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Post by hewi on Jun 30, 2021 10:09:34 GMT -8
The plates glued into the book are of course printed.
But the models for them were watercolours by the author.
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Post by trehopr1 on Jun 30, 2021 10:16:46 GMT -8
Would you know hewi if there are any known models (works) out there perhaps owned by someone ?
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Post by trehopr1 on Jun 30, 2021 10:26:40 GMT -8
I would add that Mr. Twidle must of had some measure of means in life to
afford having his works color printed.
Printing of any kind (even back in the day) did not come cheaply. The vast
majority of pictures then were black/white's to save on cost (if printed).
Colorized pictures were on a whole nother' level of cost !
Especially, times(X) how many copies you wanted produced.
Which is why a few enterprising yet (lack of funding) collectors/individuals
such as Hermann Strecker went the route of hand-coloring their own works.
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Post by livingplanet3 on Jun 30, 2021 10:33:18 GMT -8
Very nice - thank you for posting these; always interesting to hear about historical lepidoptery!
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