Old book illustrations wordshop

Welcome to Old book illustrations wordshop, the blog we have intended to complement our main site, Old book illustrations.
While we all like pictures and a lot of people will be fully satisfied to just look at them, download them and use them any way they want, it occured to us that some visitors might feel somewhat frustrated not to know anything about them or the books from which they were taken. So we decided to grant our illustrations some extra room to put them into context and quote one or two of the paragraphs which relate to them. In the case of the Trousset encyclopedia, we chose to reproduce the full article every time, with the secret hope that in the long run, entry after entry, it would build up to something our most benevolent visitors would think worth refering to.
This blog is also the place where we’ll add a general description of each book and a short note about its author and illustrator(s), that is if we know anything about them…
Please feel free to comment and to send us feedback and suggestions.

FRINGILLA: (lat. fringilla, finch). Ornith. Name given by Linné to a large genus of the order insessores, sub-order oscines, tribe conirostres, family fringillidae, which includes a large category of small birds with bright colors and a thick and more or less conical short bill. The waxbill, (estrilda, Linn.), is approximately 16 inches long; its bill is bright red, like its chest; its general color is brown on the back and a reddish gray on the belly, with dark wavy patterns. This charming bird lives in Africa, from Senegal to the Cape of Good Hope.
- The Java finch, commonly called Java sparrow, (amadina oryzivora, Linn.), padda, or Java rice bird, is approximately 4 inches long; its bill is strong and red, its eyelids are of the same color, its head and its throat are black, the sides of its head under the eyes are white, its back is ash-colored, its belly and its thighs are of a pale pink color; its behind is white, its tail black; it lives in Java, China and India.
- To the fringilla group belong the finches, weavers, indigo-birds and whydahs, linnets, goldfinches, canaries, siskins, hawfinches, buntings, bullfinches, crossbills, etc. These birds are …Read more »