1827 Ostrich, Oudart, large hand coloured stone lithograph, rare, ornithology

Autruche

Habits les deserts brulants de l’Afrique, court Alec use vitesse incroyable, et donne plumes du plus beau duvet.

Extremely rare.

Issued in the series:

Histoire naturelle. Ensemble de 41 planches dessinées par Guerin et Lith. en couleurs par E.F. Noel.

Published by Noel aîné, Paris, 1827.

Because the work was never formally completed no title-page nor accompanying letterpress for the series was produced, though the title 'Collection d'Animaux' appears in the publisher's 1827 catalogue of plates available for individual purchase (at a franc each, or 75 centimes uncoloured). The images were produced by Paul-Louis Oudart and P. Guerin, both noted as "dessinateurs-naturalistes" at the Jardin du Roi (the Jardin des Plantes, that is, going through one of its periodic name changes, on this occasion because of the Bourbon restoration). 

Oudart (1796-1860) was the well-connected natural history artist who worked on the scientific plates for several grands voyages accounts, beginning with that of Freycinet in the mid-1820s.