b'196192JOHN WILLIAM LEWIN (17701819) Ptilinopus Magnificus (Wompoo Pigeon)watercolour, circa 1812,signed lower right,37 x 28cm (visible)PROVENANCESothebys, Fine Australian Paintings and Books,Sydney, 29/11/1993, Lot No. 153.John William Lewin, naturalist and artist, was a son ofwas cleared, but in September Lewin excused himself to William Lewin, a fellow of the Linnean Society and authorDrury for not repaying his debt by delays caused by this of The Birds of Great Britain (London, 1789-94). His sons,unfortunate Business and by his having been taken with John William and Thomas worked with him at Darenth inthe flux during the winter.Kent and at Hoxton, London, during the preparation of thisIn 1804 Governor King granted Lewin a 100-acre (40 ha) work; plates occur with their signatures and in his prefacefarm near Parramatta but it seems unlikely that he had their father acknowledges their help in the compilation ofthe time or means to develop it. He was busy making the natural history observations. expeditions to the Nattai River and the Cow pastures and About 1797 J. W. Lewin was anxious to visit New Southengraving the plates for his two books on insects and Wales. He did not lack patrons. His first book, Prodromusbirds. Conscious of his own lack of training in grammar Entomology, Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects ofand spelling, he tried to enlist the help of a well educated New South Wales (London, 1805) was dedicated to Ladyyoung man, John Grant, who became his close friend in Arden in grateful remembrance of that goodness which1804, though it is not known if the requested help was gave the Author an opportunity of employing his talents,given. Grants verses praising Lewin, entitled Panegyric on as it were in a new world. On 6 February 1798 the Duke ofan Eminent Artist, occur in a few copies of Lewins Birds Portland informed Governor John Hunter that Lewin wouldof New Holland with their Natural History. He became a sail in the Buffalo and that he should be allowed rationsmember of the Parramatta Loyal Association, in which he during his residence in the settlement. The entomologist,rose to the rank of sergeant. He was among the settlers Dru Drury, who assisted many collectors, supplied himwho supported Governor William Bligh and was one of with an entomologists outfit in payment for which Lewinthe signatories to a petition to Paterson in May 1808, engaged to send insects from New South Wales. Laterexpressing alarm at the governors deposition.Thomas Marsham, author of Entomologia BritannicaLewin had hoped that the proceeds from the sale of his (London, 1802) and Alexander McLeay united with Drury intwo books would enable him to return to England. Although sending money to Lewin in the colony. this hope was not realized they greatly enhanced his fame By some mischance Lewin missed the Buffalo, althoughand Drury secured his election as an associate of the his wife was already on board. She was befriended byLinnean Society in 1801. The books plates are faithful and the captain and his wife, and after reaching the colony bydelicate representations of insects and birds which were Rev. Richard Johnson and his wife. Lewin arrived in thethen little known. Prodromus Entomology, published in Minerva on 11 January 1800 and was immediately involved1805, appeared in a second edition in 1822 and the Birds, in a lawsuit in defence of his wife against an accusationfirst printed in 1808, had two further editions in 1822 of misconduct with the second mate of the Buffalo. Sheand 1838 as well as the variant published in Sydney in 1813. The texts of the London editions were edited by his brother Thomas with the help of eminent scientists. The collaboration of scientists and the issue of several editions, some reprinted, for watermarks later than imprints occur on plates, show the interest which these works aroused. All are rare today, especially the 1808 Birds. Only six copies of it are known, those of George III and five English subscribers. The consignment for Australia appears to have been lost and hence the curious Sydney edition of 1813, with text by J. W. Lewin, perhaps using some descriptions by John Grant, and with plates made up of pulls from the engravings before the copper plates were sent to England, as well as one or two plates not in the London editions. The plates of the Insects and some of those in the Birds are the earliest copper plates known to have been engraved in New South Wales.There is a collection of Lewins paintings in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and a number of natural history water-colour drawings in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection in the National Library of Australia. His contemporaries esteemed him for his paintings of natural history subjects and of Aboriginals. Unfortunately few of the latter seem to have survived.[Adapted from the Australian Dictionary of Biography.]$50,00075,000Right: 192 (Detail)192'