ABOUT THE PUBLICATION / EDITOR / ARTIST

Walter Lawry BULLER

Walter Lawry BULLER'S A History of the Birds of New Zealand, 2nd edition, was published in 13 parts between July 1887 and December 1888. 

The publisher London: Taylor & Francis for the author, printed by Judd & Co., [1887-] 1888. in 2 volumes, imperial quarto, (14 3/8 x 10 3/4 inches). The first 12 parts each comprised text and 4 plates, the final part text only.

The plates of the second edition show the artist, John Gerard Keulemans at his best and are superb examples of chromolithography.

John Keulemans (1842-1912) was a Dutch painter and illustrator who became famous as an artist and illustrator in England in the late 19th Century. He did the illustrations for both the first and second editions of Sir Walter Lawry Buller's
A History of the Birds of New Zealand.

The demand for the first edition of Buller's Bird of New Zealand was such that Buller persuaded Keulemans to undertake a second edition which included details of many more species than the first and gives names, synonymies, detailed descriptions and elaborate accounts of the habits and distribution of the birds. Keulemans completely re-drew the plates for the original subjects as well as undertaking the additional plates of the newly discovered species.

"The book itself is on a larger scale [than the first edition], being Imperial instead of Royal quarto, and the plates, instead of being handcoloured lithographs, have been produced by the more costly but more exact and satisfactory process of printing in colours ..." (Preface).

Although 1,000 sets of the 1888 edition were produced, a total of 251 copies were lost in the wrecks of the Matai and the Assaye in 1890.