McGill Library
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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Razorbill
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Alca torda
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on 2019 species identification.
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-817
Edition area
Edition statement
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Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
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Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(approximately 1720-approximately 1790)
Biographical history
Peter Paillou was born in London into a Huguenot family and was recognised in his own time as an eminent ‘bird painter’. In 1744 he began to paint for Taylor White and worked for him for almost thirty years, painting chiefly birds and mammals. He painted as well for Robert More, Joseph Banks, and for the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Many of his paintings of birds were used as the basis for book illustrations, often engraved by his colleague and fellow Huguenot, Peter Mazell. Paillou was elected to the Society of Artists and in 1763 he exhibited ‘A Piece of Birds, in Watercolours; the Hen of the Wood and Cock of the Red Game’. In 1778, to considerable approval, he also showed a picture of ‘A Horned Owl from Peru’, completely made from feathers.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Drawing of a Razorbill from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the East coast of North America, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Notes area
Physical condition
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Accruals
General note
Manuscript note on back of drawing: 48 Ryncops nigra Lin. S.N. p. 228. Pedibus tridactylis albis
General note
Scientific name: Alca torda
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Aves Anseres Rynchops
79 Rynchops minor
Dorso nigro, subtus albus, rostro
breviore, capite parte superiore cinereo
sicut etiam superiore parte pectoris
pedibus albicantibus.
ex. Musaeo Britanico, 1771.
The lesser Shear Water
This Bird & the Preceding I had from
the British musaeum, its size shape &
colour differ so much from the former
That I concluded it must be a diferent species.
No. 48.
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Aves Anseres Rynchops
79 Rynchops minor
with a black back, white underparts,
a shorter beak, a head that is ash-coloured on top
just as the upper part of the breast,
and white feet.
ex. Musaeo Britanico, 1771.
The lesser Shear Water
This Bird & the Preceding I had from
the British musaeum, its size shape &
colour differ so much from the former
That I concluded it must be a diferent species.
No. 48.
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 14, Painting 48
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- British Museum (Natural History) (Collector)