1771 Pyrrhula, Bullfinch, De Seve, ornithology, large quarto edition, engraving

Hand coloured plate from the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon's major work, Histoire Naturelle Generale et Particuliere Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi.

Jacques de Sève (Active 1742 –1788) was a French artist and illustrator. 

De Sève was commissioned by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon to provide the illustrations for Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749-1778, in 36 volumes) and then Buffon's Recueil de Vingtquatre Plantes et Fleurs (1772). He also illustrated work by Duhamel du Monceau, Claude Perrault and parts of Encyclopédie Méthodique. 

25.2 x 18 cm

Light age toning to outer margins.

Pyrrhula is a small genus of passerine birds, commonly called bullfinches, belonging to the finch family. The genus has a Palearctic distribution; almost all species occur in Asia, with two species exclusively in the Himalayas and one species, P. pyrrhula, also occurring in Europe.