Moses Griffith
1747-1819

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION, MELBOURNE

Moses Griffith

1747-1819
RAINBOW LORIKEET (TRICHOGLOSSUS HAEMATODUS MOLUCCANUS) 1772

goucahe on vellum
signed 'Moses Griffiths pinxt 1772' lower left; inscribed 'from New Holland' verso
26.5 X 20CM

• Lot Sold $150,000 (Hammer Price)
• $180,000 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)

Provenance

Thomas Pennant, Downing Hall, Whitford, Wales
By descent
Rudolph Edmund Aloysius Feilding, Viscount Feilding, Newnham Paddox, Rugby, England
The Valuable Library of Books, Manuscripts, Drawings, and Engravings
Sold by Order of the Executor of The Right Hon. Viscount Feilding Deceased: and have been removed from Newnham Paddox, Rugby,
including The famous Collections of Thomas Pennant, At one time
forming portion of the Library at Downing, Flintshire, comprising
Grangerized copies of his own works, with original Topographical and
Natural History Drawings by his special artist, Moses Griffith, Christie,
Manson & Woods, London, 4 July 1938, lot 251 or 254
Francis Howard or Edward Llewellyn Roger Lloyd-Mostyn, 4th Baron Mostyn
Norman Adams Antiques, London
Rick J. Willis, Melbourne
Dr Norman Wettenhall, Melbourne
Willcox Collection, Melbourne
Private Collection, Melbourne

Literature

R.J. Willis, \x91The Earliest Known Australian Bird Painting: A Rainbow Lorikeet, Thrichoglossus Haematodus Moluccanus (Gmelin) by Moses
Griffith, Painted in 1772\x92, Archives of Natural History, vol. 15 part 3, 1988, pp. 323-329, 327 (illustrated)
R.J. Willis, \x91Portrait of a Pet: An Australian First\x92, Australian Natural History, Vol. 23, No. 9, Winter 1991, pp. 680-681, p. 680 (illustrated)
The Wettenhall Library: Natural History, Especially Ornithology, Voyages, Travels and Australiana from the Library of Dr Norman Wettenhall, Hordern House, Sydney, and Andrew Isles, Melbourne, 1995, p. 20
Penny Olsen, Feather and Brush: Three Centuries of Australian Bird Art, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2001, pp. 16, 17 (illustrated), 19
David G. Medway, \x91The Contribution of Thomas Pennant (1726-1798), Welsh Naturalist, to the Australian Ornithology of Cook\x92s First Voyage
(1768-1771)\x92, Archives of Natural History, Vol. 38, Part 2, 2011, pp. 282-283, 285