Francis Orpen Morris / Benjamin Fawcett - Lot of 29 plates from "History of British Birds", Charadriiformes e dei Pelecaniformes - 1870

Francis Orpen Morris (1810-1893). History of British Birds. London: Bell and Daldy, 1870.

Format: about 175 x 255 mm (sheet)

Lot of 29 sheets, of which 14 are descriptive sheets and 15 engravings on heavy paper, mostly hand-colored, in good condition. Shipping: insured via Bartolini/DPD courier; declare any damages at pickup. Provenance: private collection.

Francis Orpen Morris (25 March 1810 – 10 February 1893) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, known as the "parson-naturalist" (ornithologist and entomologist) and author of many children’s books and books on natural history and historic buildings. He was a pioneer in the movement to protect birds from the feather trade and was one of the founders of the Plumage League. He died on 10 February 1893 and was buried in Nunburnholme, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Morris was the eldest son of Rear-Admiral Henry Gage Morris, a senior officer of the Royal Navy, and Rebecca Orpen, the younger daughter of Reverend Francis Orpen, vicar of Kilgarvan, County Kerry. Francis Orpen Morris grew up on the west coast of Ireland, where he developed a lasting love for the natural world. The entire family moved to England in 1824. After living for a while in Worcester, they settled in Charmouth, Dorset in 1826.

Francis Orpen Morris’s grandfather was Colonel Roger Morris, a member of the Governor’s Council of New York, who married George Washington’s former sweetheart Mary Philipse. Mary had inherited a third of a vast estate, the Philipse Patent, 160,000 acres on the Hudson River. Roger and Mary’s land was confiscated after the American War of Independence. Subsequently, John Jacob Astor traced the three surviving children (including Henry Gage Morris) of Roger and Mary Morris (the others had died without heirs) and purchased any claims they had on the land. Astor proved in court that the State had no legal right to confiscate the land in the first place. Mary had established a trust for her unborn children two weeks before marrying Roger; the Morrises held a legally binding life tenancy that had been passed down through generations. Astor eventually sold it to the State of New York for enormous profit. wikipedia

Benjamin Fawcett (Bridlington, December 1808 – January 1893) was a British engraver and color printer of the 19th century.

Books printed by Fawcett
A Natural History of British Birds. The Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1850-1857) 6 volumes, 8vo, Groombridge.
British Fresh-Water Fishes. The Reverend William Houghton (set of two volumes). Benjamin Fawcett [printer], A F Lydon [artist], Publisher William Mackenzie: [1879]: London. First edition xxvi, 202 pp (380 x 290 mm), Illustrated with 41 full-page color plates and vignette headpieces, brick-red cloth, with fishing emblems. 41 color wood-engravings printed by Benjamin Fawcett of Driffield from A.F.Lydon, and a further 64 wood engravings by Lydon.
Parrots in Captivity. William Greene.
Alpine Plants. David Wooster.
Seats of the Nobility and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland. The Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1870). William Mackenzie, Ludgate Hill.