Reticilla Americana & Juglans Nigra [Redstart with Black Walnut]

London: Printed for Charles Marsh, Thomas Wilcox and Benjamin Stichall, 1754. hand-coloured etched plate on fine laid paper. A fine plate of the Redstart and Black Walnut from the second edition of the "most famous colorplate book of American plant and animal life ... a fundamental and original work for the study of American species" (Hunt).

Trained as a botanist, Catesby travelled to Virginia in 1712 and remained there for seven years, sending back to England collections of plants and seeds. With the encouragement of Sir Hans Sloane and others, Catesby returned to America in 1722 to seek materials for his Natural History; he travelled extensively in Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas, sending back further specimens. His preface provides a lengthy account of the development of this work, including his decision to study with Joseph Goupy in order to learn to etch his copper plates himself to ensure accuracy and economy. The end result is encyclopaedic: Catesby provides information not only on the botany and ornithology of the area, but also on its history, climate, geology and anthropology. Catesby's plate pairs the American redstart, now Setophaga ruticilla, with the black walnut, Juglans nigra. The bird's old name, Ruticilla Americana, appears engraved at the lower left, while the walnut is named at the lower right. The male redstart, shown with black head and back, white underparts, and orange-red patches at the wing and tail, gives the plate its sharp visual accent against the heavy clusters of walnut fruit and long, tapering leaflets. The pairing shows Catesby's characteristic compression of bird and plant into a single decorative field: the redstart supplies movement and colour, while the walnut anchors the image in the useful trees of eastern North America.

Cf. Anker 95; cf. Clark I:55; cf. Dunthorne 72; cf. Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 86; cf. Great Flower Books (1990), p.85; cf. Meisel III:340; cf. Nissen BBI 336, IVB 177; cf. Sabin 11509; cf. Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1057; cf. Wood p. 282; cf. Amy Meyers and Margaret Pritchard, Empire's Nature, Mark Catesby's New World Vision, Williamsburg, 1998.