New Leaves is a series highlighting acquisitions in Special Collections and Archives.
“A breakfast room adjoined the drawing-room, I slipped in there. It contained a bookcase: I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.”
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
What illustrated volume so possessed Bronte’s heroine, Jane Eyre? None other than one of Thomas Bewick’s, The History of British Birds, with its finely-detailed miniature vignettes of birds and English country life.
Bewick (1753-1828) was born on a small farm on the south banks of the river Tyne in Northumberland, England. His love for the countryside and nature began in his youth and his numerous childhood sketches earned him an unexpected apprenticeship with a local engraver. As his career progressed, Bewick reinvigorated wood block printing by refining the materials and techniques to achieve intricacies not possible with traditional woodcut illustrations. Unlike copperplate etchings and engravings, wood engravings were durable enough to yield up to 900,000 prints and could be printed at the same time as the text in the hand press book form. This proved advantageous since Bewick’s new techniques also coincided with an increasingly literate population and the rise of the educational system.
Recently acquired by Special Collections, this two-volume set of British Birds (one for land and two for water) are infused with Bewick’s love for his native countryside. In addition to the references to Buffon, the most widely read natural historian of the time, Bewick’s descriptions of birds include local anecdotes such as who shot and brought him a particular specimen or how a jay domesticated to imitate sounds overly excited the dog and had to be destroyed. Captivating vignettes of rural activities, no larger than a credit card and often the size of a postage stamp, punctuate the end of each bird’s description in an illustrative form known as a “tailpiece.”
As Bronte attests by her reference to his work, the alluring combination of text and illustrations made Bewick a celebrity in his own time and with the recent movie release of Jane Eyre, possibly in our time as well.
Bewick, Thomas. History of British Birds. / The figures engraved on wood by T. Bewick. Newcastle: Printed by Sol. Hodgson, for Beilby & Bewick: Sold by them, and G.G. & J. Robinson, London., 1797-1804. Call Number: SpC. 598.0941 B572h
For more information about this text or other titles by Thomas Bewick, contact Special Collections and Archives at: archives@depaul.edu.