The Radcliffe Collection of coloured drawings of birds from the Amsterdam cabinet of Joan Raye (1737–1823) with annotations by François Levaillant (1753–1824)

In 1826, the University of Oxford purchased a collection of 930 watercolour drawings of birds bound in 12 volumes. They had been obtained by the bookseller Joseph Harding (1783–1843) of London at an auction of the effects of Joan Raye van Breukelerwaard (1737–1823) in Amsterdam in 1824 or 1825. Here called the ‘Radcliffe Collection’, these drawings have a close connection with the French ornithologist François Levaillant (1753–1824), well-known for his travels to South Africa (1780–1784) and for his authorship of five splendidly-illustrated ornithological works. The history and contents of this collection are described. Of the 752 birds depicted, 420 species also feature in the auction catalogue of Raye’s cabinet dated 1827. About half of the drawings in the Radcliffe Collection depict species described and figured on the engraved plates in Levaillant’s published works. The drawings often include two captions in French, one probably written by Levaillant, the second possibly by Joan Raye or his curator. None of the drawings was signed by an artist. They depict many type specimens of species first described by Levaillant, which were given binomial names by others in the early nineteenth century. They provide a rare glimpse into private cabinets of natural history at a time when many new species of birds were brought to Europe from across the world.