Anthreptes anchietae [Anchieta’s Sun-bird]

Description

original hand-colour lithograph, with accompanying text.

Exquisite print from Captain George Ernest Shelley’s landmark work A Monograph of the Nectariniidae or
Family of Sun-Birds. It depicts Anchieta’s Sunbird (Anthreptes anchietae). Native to the miombo woodlands and highland evergreen forest edges of south-central Africa—including Angola, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Malawi—this distinctive species features a red central breast patch flanked by bold yellow underparts and dark upperparts. Today, it remains present across its native miombo woodland habitats, foraging in pairs or small family groups for nectar and insects among flowering trees. Illustrated by the master lithographer John Gerard Keulemans, whose careful attention to natural history allowed him to render the bird’s delicate plumage and surrounding foliage with exceptional realism, this artwork exemplifies the finest 19th century scientific illustration. Issued in a strictly limited subscriber run of only 250 copies, original first-edition plates from this monograph remain exceptionally scarce and valued by collectors today.