Ornismya paulinae Boissoneau 1839 (5 Viewers)

[Taphrospilus]

Ornismya paulinae Boissoneau 1839 OD here plus plate

Cet Oiseau-mouche a été dédié à mademoiselle Pauline Barthod, fiancée de l'intrépide voyageur à qui la science doit la découverte de beaucoup d'Oiseaux remarquables.

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims:

Metaltail sp Ornismya paulinae Boissoneau 1839 NCR [Alt. Tyrian Metaltail, JS Metallura tyrianthina]
Pauline Barthod (fl. 1839) is described as being 'fiancée de l'intrépide voyageur à qui la science doit la découverte de beaucoup d'Oiseaux'-without giving his name!

The Key to Scientific Names

Pauline Barthod (fl. 1839) fiancée of French collector (syn. Metallura tyrianthina).

That might be a hard nut to crack. But it lead me to a surprise here p. 15 of 51 Laure Numeu Emélie Pauline Barthod married Etienne Rieffer. She was born 14 April 1809 here p. 37 of 101. According filae I would say she died in Paris.

Possiby him? He was a voyageur!

Mr. Rieffer

And, at last, the obscure Mr. "Rieffer" (alt. "Riéffer" or "Riéfer"), last year also dealt with in the thread riefferi / riefferii ...

As of today's HBW Alive Key (still) explained as: ● Green-and-black Fruiteater Pipreola riefferii BOISSONNEAU 1840 (here) as "Ampelis Riefferii" ● Grass-green Tanager Chlorornis riefferii BOISSONNEAU 1840 (on the next-following page, or here) as "Tanagra Riefferii"

● the invalid "T. [Trochilus] Riefferi" BOURCIER & MULSANT 1843, here, a k a "Le Rieffer", alt. here (syn. Amazilia tzacatl DE LA LLAVE 1833)Richmond note here. Anyone know of any such book?

If he truly was French, or Dutch is beyond my knowledge. His name has also been written: Riéffer, with accent and double-f (see here,p.460 alt.in the following Wiki-pages; here and here). Isn´t that the spelling that Mearns & Mearns use in their book The Bird Collectors (1997)? I read it, once again, not long ago, however I don´t have it at hand, but that´s how I remember it …?

If of any help?

Björn

PS. I´ve seen no trace (other than the one we know of since last year's thread) of his first name being "Gabriel". Maybe we´re simply looking for: Charles Marie JuIes Louis Riéfer (Charles-Marie-JuIes-Louis Riéfer)!? He apparently collected some Naturalia (at least snakes) together with Hippolyte Joseph Henri Goudot in South America during the early 1800's. Who knows?

PPS. That´s all I can find. Lucky for me none of those guys are present in my "List to check", that only deals with the Swedish Common Bird names.

Well that´s all I can find, this far. Good luck to anyone giving those obscure Eponyms another go!
--

 

[PScofield]

I assume this is the
OD

 

[Taphrospilus]

Could be that this Etienne Rieffer was born 20 Nov 1806 in Bitche. See here. And yes OD was alread 1839 and you are correct.

 

[PScofield]

The types of all BOISSONNEAU 1839(40) are in Vienna. One or two are from the Loddiges collection and one is even described as collected by Boissoneau himself. The remaining syntype of Ornismya paulinae Boissoneau is described as:

NMW 2.456 (dem.St.), d ad., Santa Fe de Bogota, Colombia [4°38‘ N, 74°05‘ W], ex coll. Boissonneau [no. 44 (469)], durch Kauf: 1842 (1842.1.6.) [von fremder Hand bezeichnet: Syntypus ?]

All in all a think there is a good case that Etienne Rieffer is your man.

 

[PScofield]

Putting this in a new post as your really going to like this document Martin. A real smoking gun! and here we have evidence that the specimens that Boissoneau described came from M. Reiffer

 

[Taphrospilus]

Wow I thought this mytery will never been solved.

 

[PScofield]

A couple of things:

1) We now know that by 1843 he was back in Europe so most of those dates of collection that are 1843 in various museums are no doubt the date sold!
2) Is the birth date of Pauline 1807 or 1809
3) If they married in 1840, did he go back to New Grenada or did he delay the sale till 1843?
4) If the reconstructed birth certificate of Etienne is dated 1892 is it reasonable to assume that is his approximate date of death?

P

 

[l_raty]

Pauline's death: here, 15/31.
Here she is called Laure Anne Émilie Pauline Barthod; she was a teacher; she died on 3 Jun 1876, aged 68; she was the widow of Étienne Rieffer.

(I read her birth date as 14 Apr 1807, which is a bit problematic as this should make her 69 on 3 Jun 1876; but 1809 should make her 67, hence is not better...)
(Obviously, if she was a widow in 1876, Étienne cannot have died around 1892.)

 

[l_raty]

Étienne's death: here, 29/31.
Here, they are both given as grocers (épicier / épicière). He died on 5 Oct 1872, aged 66; he was born in Bitche, Moselle.

(Here she is again given an odd second name -- something like Laure Nonnecy (?) Émélie Pauline Barthod. She is given as being 65, which is OK if she was born 14 Apr 1807.)

 

[PScofield]

Her son's marriage banns are attached - her name is given as Laure Heinery Emelie Pauline Barthod?

Here (also attached) we have a curious record for a Paul Etienne George Rieffer. He was arrested for home invasion in 1873 - possibly a son given the above. Did Mme Guillotine finish this story off?

 

[Taphrospilus]

4) If the reconstructed birth certificate of Etienne is dated 1892 is it reasonable to assume that is his approximate date of death?

P

See also your post #4 (what's confirmed by Laurent).

 

[Taphrospilus]

I think with above information the key may need enhanced for paulinae and riefferi:

Laure Anne Émilie Pauline Rieffer née Barthold (1807-1876) but also as Laure Nonnecy (?) Émélie Pauline Barthold.
Étienne Rieffer (1806-1872)

 

[l_raty]

"Nonnecy" is a half-guess based on an unsharp image.
Considering the whole picture, what about Nannecy / Nanneci, as a spelling variant of Nancy, which itself is a variant of Anne ?

Emilie being much more common than Emélie, reading the latter inadverently as the former would seem much more likely than the opposite. Thus Emélie may be more likely to have been the correct spelling.

 

[James Jobling]

I still find it difficult to reconcile the grocer Rieffer with the explorer hacking his way through the Colombian rainforest. For the time being I shall retain The Key entry.

 

[PScofield]

I do not think that people have to explore the Amazon until the day they die. In my experience what happened to this couple is pretty normal. In the 19th century (without social security) in your dotage you had to find a way to support yourself. I do not think this case is too thin - with 10 documents including Etienne's marriage certificate stating he was a voyageur and naming his wife and another stating that he was a naturalist

 

[Taphrospilus]

I go one step further. From where comes any evidence that Gabriel Rieffer ever exists? If you show me evidence I am OK with the claim. The rest is as Paul wrote. Pauline was the fiancee of a collector. Both names are given by Boissoneau. I haven't found any evidence that the Pauline you claimed was married to a Gabriel Rieffer. Of course it could be another collector. Who was the collector? Traveling documents to Colombia shows Étienne was in Colombia around 1839. So please provide more evidence for the non existing Gabriel.

 

[l_raty]

Below is a comparison of the signature of Etienne Rieffer the naturalist, arriving at the port of London in Jan 1843, taken from the attachment in post #5 above, and that of Etienne Rieffer the grocer of rue Rébeval, in Sep 1871, taken from the marriage record of his son here, 29/31.



There were almost three decades between the two signatures, and the hand was certainly more hesitant in 1871 than it was in 1843. But I think they are sufficiently similar to be reasonably sure that they were from the same person.

 

[James Jobling]

I am impressed and convinced by the signatures, and have updated both paulinae and riefferi. Back to the generic synonyms!!