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Parrot of St. Thomas
Blue-fronted Amazon
Amazona aestiva
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Peter Paillou was born in London into a Huguenot family and was recognised in his own time as an eminent ‘bird painter’. In 1744 he began to paint for Taylor White and worked for him for almost thirty years, painting chiefly birds and mammals. He painted as well for Robert More, Joseph Banks, and for the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Many of his paintings of birds were used as the basis for book illustrations, often engraved by his colleague and fellow Huguenot, Peter Mazell. Paillou was elected to the Society of Artists and in 1763 he exhibited ‘A Piece of Birds, in Watercolours; the Hen of the Wood and Cock of the Red Game’. In 1778, to considerable approval, he also showed a picture of ‘A Horned Owl from Peru’, completely made from feathers.
Drawing of a Blue-fronted Amazong from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Neotropics and China.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Parrot of St. Thomas
Manuscript note on back of drawing: from the Island of St. Thomas in the East Indies
Scientific name: Amazona aestiva
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Psittacus ab Insula
St. Thomae
P: Br: Viridis fronte et rostro albido cervice
et genis humeris q[ue] flavis. Dorso viride pennis
margine nigris remigibus lateribus exteris
parte superiore coccineo caeteris caeruleis pectore
et Abdomine viride caerulescente rectricibus
duodecimus quorum mediis duobus viridibus
apicibus flavescentibus. Quatuor in parte
superiore viridibus inferiore flavis: sex
alteris in parte superiore coccineis
inferiore flavis sed in duobus in extremis
margine exteriore Caeruleo.
The Parrot of the Island of St Thomas
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Psittacus ab Insula
St. Thomae
P: Br: Viridis [The green parrot of the island of St. Thomas] with a white forehead and beak,
a golden-yellow neck, cheeks, and shoulders; a green back with feathers
edged in black; outer flight feathers on the sides of the wings
that are scarlet at the top and blue for the rest;
a blue-green breast and abdomen; twelve flight feathers on the tail,
of which the middle two are green
with golden-yellow tips; Four [of the feathers] are green
at the top and golden-yellow at the bottom: the other six
are scarlet at the top
and golden-yellow at the bottom but the two feathers at either
end are blue on the outer edge.
The Parrot of the Island of St Thomas