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Hummingbirds fly in to Piccadilly for Spring 

Henry Sotheran Antique Prints Gallery, London
19th March

As World Land Trust (WLT) Council Member and wildlife writer, Simon Barnes, said in his address to guests at the opening night of the Hummingbird Exhibition at Sotheran's on 19 March:

"No one, however blind and indifferent to nature, can fail to be captured by hummingbirds. They are the birds that every one understands: a bird that can't fail to provoke wonder."

Top: Simon Barnes (left) opened the Hummingbird exhibition at Sotheran's Bookshop in Sackville Street, on the evening of 19 March. He is joined here by Andrew McGeachin, Managing Director of Sotheran's. Above: Hummingbird print by John Gould. (Click on the images to see larger versions.)

Sotheran's call their exhibition of rare prints by John Gould, A Shimmer of Hummingbirds, and their Print Room, downstairs on Sackville Street, certainly does, at the moment, shimmer with their beauty. The prints date back to the mid 1850s when John Gould and his artists found "A new mode of representing the luminous and metallic colouring of the Trochilidae. ... The effect is produced by a combination of transparent oil and varnish colours on pure leaf gold ..." (From the official catalogue, 1851.)

Henry Sotheran Ltd bought the estate of John Gould in 1881 and although they have a large number of Hummingbird prints, many of those in the exhibition have not been in stock for over twenty years. The walls at Sotheran's are decked with 42 beautifully hand coloured lithographs, all with magical gem-like quality to match their gem-like names: Brazilian Ruby, Fiery Topax and Glittering-bellied Emerald to name just three of them.

The Exhibition runs until 10 April and is open Monday-Friday: 9.30 am - 6pm and Saturday: 10am - 4pm. Entrance is free of charge. World Land Trust will receive 50% of the profits on all prints sold during the exhibition.

More information

Exhibition details:
A Shimmer of Hummingbirds: Rare prints by John Gould

Press release:
Hummingbirds Set to Fly Out of Sotheran's, Piccadilly

 
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