Within the days when color printing was extraordinarily costly, the Avicultural Society had particular appeals for funds to assist the looks in Avicultural Journal of the occasional color plate. A widely known chicken artist was then commissioned. Though the entire run of the Society’s magazines will be discovered on-line, the plates hardly ever see the sunshine of day. Due to this fact I made a decision to indicate one, every so often, on this website. That is the thirteenth within the sequence.
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The artist was John Cyril Harrison (1898-1985). For many of his life he lived in Norfolk. He skilled on the Slade after the First World Conflict and have become well-known for his wildlife work, particularly birds. He was a daily customer to Scotland, elements of Africa and Iceland. He was prolific and his work usually seems in auctions.
The brief article accompanying this plate was written by Philip Wayre (1921-2014) who in 1959 had based the Decorative Pheasant Belief. He additionally had a small zoo at Nice Witchingham, the Norfolk Wildlife Park.
Philip Wayre wrote:
In 1958 two pairs of wild-caught Swinhoe’s have been obtained from Formosa [Taiwan] by Dr Ok.C. Searle of Hong Kong. These have been despatched to England and have been introduced to the Decorative Pheasant Belief, then within the strategy of formation, by Miss Kay Bonner and Mr A.A. Prestwich. From these birds two younger cocks have been reared that 12 months and these have since been mated to home-bred birds. The Belief has, subsequently, a much-needed change of blood with which to work.
Swinhoe’s Pheasant (Lophura swinhoii) is a Taiwan endemic. Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877) was in fact accountable for its assortment. It was named for him by Robert Gould in 1863. Guild insisted that he ought to describe and paint the whole assortment that Swinhoe had introduced again to London, or none in any respect.
Avicultural Journal Vol 67, 1961