Nut-hatch

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the advancement of natural science depended on wealthy enthusiasts, whose collections aided in the classification of species. The spread of information about newly described specimens was essential in differentiating one species from another, and as it was impractical to send the specimens themselves, collectors relied on images. This image of a nut-hatch, a species common throughout the Northern Hemisphere, indicates the specimen’s origin as Thorndon Park in Essex. The artist’s precision and control of his materials appears in the feathers, described in fine linear strokes (2022).