Bidspirit auction | Rothschild, Extinct - Rodrigues Parrot

Rothschild, Extinct - Rodrigues Parrot of Reunion Island (Necropsittacus Borbonicus). 8 - This rare, first edition chromolithograph is from Walter Rothschild's Extinct Birds . The work was published by Hutchinson & Co. in London in 1907. The lithographs are from a limited edition of 300 copies of which 280 were ever for sale. Noted artists contributed to the work including John G. Keulemans, George Edward Lodge, Joseph Smit, and Frederick William Frohawk. The work was important for it raising awareness of the extinction of species. It combined prehistoric extinctions with those of recent history. Rothschild noted ”The cause of recent extinction among birds is in most cases due directly or indirectly to man, but we also have instances of birds becoming extinct for no apparent reason whatever.”