John Latham Art

A set of 5 original hand colored copper plate engravings by British artist John Latham (1740-1837), made between 1821-1828. Limited edition: 25. All five engravings have been matted together with all archival materials: matting from Holland and a spectacular frame from Spain. Framed size: 44" x 32.5". Each engraving image size: 8" x 6". Excellent condition. John Latham (27 June 1740 – 4 February 1837) was an English physician, naturalist and author. Latham has been called the "grandfather" of Australian ornithology. His main works were A General Synopsis of Birds (1781–1801) and General History of Birds (1821–1828). He was able to examine specimens of Australian birds which reached England in the last twenty years of the 18th century, and was responsible for naming many of them. These included the emu, sulphur-crested cockatoo, wedge-tailed eagle, superb lyrebird and Australian magpie. He was also the first to describe the hyacinth macaw. John Latham was born on 27 June 1740 at Eltham in south east London. He was the eldest son of John Latham (d.1788),[1] a surgeon there, and his mother who was a descendant of the Sothebys, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and then studied anatomy under William Hunter and completed his medical education in London hospitals. In 1763 at the age of 23 he began working as a physician in the village of Darenth, near Dartford in Kent. In the same year he married Ann Porter. They had four children of whom a son John (1769-1822) and a daughter Ann (1772-1835) survived childhood. Latham retired from his medical practice aged 56 in 1796 and moved to live near his son at Romsey in Hampshire. His wife died in 1798 and Latham remarried the same year to Ann Delamott. His son who had invested in a series of inns became heavily indebted and was declared bankrupt in 1817. Latham lost much of his wealth in supporting his son. In 1819 Latham sold his house in Romsey and moved with his wife to live with his daughter's family in Winchester. His second wife died in 1821 and then in the following year his son committed suicide. Latham died aged 96 in Winchester on the 4 February 1837 and was buried in Romsey Abbey. A General Synopsis of Birds was Latham's first ornithological work and contained 106 illustrations by the author. It described many new species which Latham had discovered in various museums and collections. In this work, like Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, he did not attach importance to the names of the species which he described. Later, Latham realised that only the use of the Linnean binomial system would give him the honour of originating the species' scientific names. Thus he published in 1790, a Index Ornithologicus where he specified a binomial name for all the species which he had previously described. However, it was too late, as Johann Friedrich Gmelin had already published his own version of Linnaeus' Systema Naturæ...