Item 018 - Indian spot-billed duck (Anas poecilorhyncha)

Open original Digital object

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Indian spot-billed duck (Anas poecilorhyncha)

General material designation

Parallel title

Anas poecilorhyncha

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title from 2021 identification of species.

Level of description

Item

Reference code

CA RBD Gwillim-1-018

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

Physical description area

Physical description

1 painting : watercolour on paper ; 62.2 x 60.6 cm

Publisher's series area

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

(1763-1807)

Biographical history

Hereford-born Lady Elizabeth Gwillim (née Symonds) was an artist whose watercolors of Indian birds preceded John James Audubon’s bird paintings by about twenty years and are equally detailed and natural. Married in 1784 to lawyer Henry Gwillim, who was knighted in 1801, she accompanied her husband to Madras, India (modern-day Chennai) that same year, together with her younger sister, Mary Symonds. Following the defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799, which secured South India for the ‘Company Raj’, Henry took the position of Puisne Judge in the Madras High Court. Elizabeth and Mary were prolific letter writers and their correspondence with family and friends in England (now in the British Library MSS Eur C240) includes descriptions of Indian culture and British life in India. During her six years in India, Elizabeth painted some 200 works, many life-sized. As well as birds, she also painted botanical subjects. Elizabeth Gwillim’s drawings of birds have been compared to those of her near contemporary John James Audubon (1). Her botanical drawings were also praised in Curtis’ Botanical Magazine (Sims 1804), which noted the ‘unusual elegance and accuracy’ of her work. Elizabeth Gwillim studied botany with the eminent Madras botanist Dr Johann Rottler (1749-1836), who named a magnolia after her, Gwillimia. She used her garden as an experimental farm, testing delicate northern plants like parsley, mint, thyme and strawberries (the quintessential English fruit) in the damp heat of Madras, and collecting seeds of the local flora for commercial nurseries in Fulham and Brompton. She was hailed as ‘the patroness of the science in that Presidency’ (Sims, Botanical Magazine, 1807), an acknowledgement of her role in an enterprise whose study has to date focused on male botanists like Roxburgh and Heyne. Gwillim died in India at the age of 44 of unknown causes.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Mounted painting of a brown duck with dark back and spotted neck, yellow beak, light and dark and green tail feathers, standing on flat rock by the water with reeds and plants. Inscription in lower right corner reads, "Anas" with another faint inscription, "The male and female are both?"

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased in London in 1924 by Casey A. Wood as part of a collection of watercolours in a portfolio labelled "E.C.K. 1800", and donated to the Blacker-Wood Library of Zoology and Ornithology.

Arrangement

Language of material

Script of material

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Finding aids

Generated finding aid

Associated materials

Related materials

Accruals

General note

Species identified in 1920s as Anas poecilorhyncha.

General note

Inscriptions read: "89" at top left, "19" at top right. On back of painting: "No.120 - Anas This is rather a rare species.

Alternative identifier(s)

Standard number area

Standard number

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Control area

Description record identifier

Institution identifier

Rules or conventions

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Language of description

Script of description

Sources

Digital object (External URI) rights area

Digital object (Reference) rights area

Digital object (Thumbnail) rights area

Accession area

Related subjects

Related people and organizations

Related places

Related genres