Catherine Gage (1815-1892) The Birds of Rathlin, a dis-bound folio containing 165 ornithological studies, in most cases set into landscape or seascape backgrounds, titled with the common name of...

Catherine Gage (1815-1892) The Birds of Rathlin, a dis-bound folio containing 165 ornithological studies, in most cases set into landscape or seascape backgrounds, titled with the common name of the bird, mounted on blue paper with printed applied name plates with common and Latin designation. Watercolour over ink, typical size 32 x 23cm Also numbered, with index This folio is a culmination of a lifetime's work dedicated to the birds of Rathlin, and were intended to form the illustrations to a book by her brother Robert Gage, who also devoted his life to Rathlin (which was not published until the manuscript was donated to the Ulster Museum). As such they are a unique record and it has been decided to offer them together in the hope that the collection will become available for study. The Gage family had a long association with the island having bought it in 1746 from the Earl of Antrim and still maintain a house on the Island. Their simple manor house is now in the care of the National Trust. The population peaked at about twelve hundred people but was devastated by famine 1846-1853, and declined to the handful there today. Two and a half miles off the coast of Ireland and much fought over, the island is indeed for colonisation by sea and land birds and is the migration routes of various species. Catherine's mother, also Catherine (1791-1851) wrote and illustrated a two volume History of Rathlin Island which remained unpublished until 1995. Catherine and Robert seem to have conceived the book in the same light that their contemporary John James Audubon had envisaged his Birds of America (1840). Although not on the same scale, and Catherine was not the artist that Audubon was, this was pioneering work before the foundation of the British Ornithological Society (1858). The drawings have great charm, a sense of place and Catherine gives each one a character.

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