Seabirds Harrison (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

Large format limited edition of 1,000 due in the autumn Books — Peter Harrison Seabirds

…also artists proofs available in the art section of his site, but quite pricey.

They're ridiculous prices for a print.

Many artists sell an original plate from a book for less than this.

 

[Essex Tern]

They're ridiculous prices for a print.

Many artists sell an original plate from a book for less than this.

If he sells all 100 of the 239 different proofs he’ll be properly minted!!……not so sure it’ll happen though, certainly priced me out of the market, as lovely as they would be to have. I only looked on the off chance he was selling original plates, but pretty sure I couldn’t justify paying his prices for those, if ever they were for sale, judging by the prices of the prints!

 

[pbjosh]

Did I misread or is that $850 for a print, with and attempt to sell 23,900 prints? Either I misread or that is wildly ambitious! Will a book like that even sell 23,900 copies?

 

[Swissboy]

Did I misread or is that $850 for a print, with and attempt to sell 23,900 prints? Either I misread or that is wildly ambitious! Will a book like that even sell 23,900 copies?

I'm afraid you did not misread anything. $850 for a print, of which there are one hundred identical ones (except for the penciled number), that is rather absurd, I think.

 

[Stonefaction]

Can't say I'm particularly a fan of Peter Harrison's style of painting in the book overall. The Gulls, Terns, Skuas and Ducks are ok and almost look like they were done by someone else, but there's something about the look of the rest that jars with me. Overall, it is a really nice book and there's a huge amount of work has gone into it but based on the artwork it is well down the list of my favourite bird books to sit and flick through.

 

[pbjosh]

I read elsewhere that the gulls/terns and some other non tubenoses were indeed painted by another artist. I’ve not received my copy yet though I have to see the initial reviews are generally not enthusiastic. They vary from „overpriced and adds nothing new“ to worse. One of the world experts on Frogatebirds offered a fairly scathing opinion. At the offered price and with the early opinions, I admit I am already biased against my awaited copy.

And good luck to Mr Harrison selling $20 MILLION worth of artist‘s proofs. Whatever drug was involved in that decision I’d like some, sounds amazing!

 

[cajanuma]

Can't say I'm particularly a fan of Peter Harrison's style of painting in the book overall. The Gulls, Terns, Skuas and Ducks are ok and almost look like they were done by someone else

Indeed, they were painted by Hans Larsson, and they are far better than just OK! More along the lines of stunning/breathtaking, and the coverage of gull plumages, especially large white-headed gulls, is incredibly comprehensive

 

[Stonefaction]

Indeed, they were painted by Hans Larsson, and they are far better than just OK! More along the lines of stunning/breathtaking, and the coverage of gull plumages, especially large white-headed gulls, is incredibly comprehensive

By OK I meant within the context of the book I had no complaints about the style of the paintings. The layout is rather cluttered though - despite spreading over two plates in some instances. Printed larger and better organised, they would make the basis of a very good Larids of the world book (or even a very useful app) and I would be surprised if Alada/Lynx do not at least explore that possibility. I had thought they had to be by a different artist but on the page preceeding the Table of Contents the artwork is copyright Peter Harrison, with no mention of Hans Larsson at all. I don't normally read the Acknowledgements section of a book but I have found there this morning a very complimentary mention of Hans Larsson's input to the book and confirmation of the plates he has done fro the book.

 

[MJB]

Did I misread or is that $850 for a print, with and attempt to sell 23,900 prints? Either I misread or that is wildly ambitious! Will a book like that even sell 23,900 copies?

Remember that Peter Harrison lives on the Pacific coast of the US, where presumably he's tested the market...
MJB

 

[MJB]

I read elsewhere that the gulls/terns and some other non tubenoses were indeed painted by another artist. I’ve not received my copy yet though I have to see the initial reviews are generally not enthusiastic. They vary from „overpriced and adds nothing new“ to worse. One of the world experts on Frogatebirds offered a fairly scathing opinion. At the offered price and with the early opinions, I admit I am already biased against my awaited copy.

And good luck to Mr Harrison selling $20 MILLION worth of artist‘s proofs. Whatever drug was involved in that decision I’d like some, sounds amazing!

The 'adds nothing new' remark in the review seems odd, because I've found many aspects new to me in comparison with the original book. On taxa that also appear in Oceanic Birds of the World, Howell & Zufelt 2019, Seabirds on the whole is slightly more conservative, although much mention is made of the H & Z take on likely future splits. Furthermore, there are a fair number of very useful references cited, some of which had passed me by or have just become available. For example, Mascarene Petrel Pseudobulweria aterrima post-breeding dispersal from Réunion is shown to be widespread from the Arabian Sea to NW Australia; that's from only the 14 birds whose tags functioned for a year. A summary of this research is given in Saunier et al 2021: it's worth googling the LIFE+ Pétrels project - they also are establishing conservation measures for Barau's Petrel Pterodroma baruai that nests on very steep slopes at 2800 to 3000m altitude on Réunion.
MJB
Saunier, M, J Dubos, P Pinet, L Humeau, C Caumes, P Souharce, YS Mattoir, M Riethmuller, M Le Corre and A Jaeger. 2021. Phenology, at sea distribution and activity of a critically endangered seabird, the Mascarene petrel. LIFE+ Pétrels project (LIFE13BIO/FR/) Poster presentation.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Remember that Peter Harrison lives on the Pacific coast of the US, where presumably he's tested the market...
MJB

Well I for one, will not be funding his pension pot. I'd want an original plate for this price and even then, it would still be a bit on the steep side.

 

[Dave Boyle]

Peter donated a couple of the prints to my work a couple of years ago - they are stunning. Just need a wall now to hang them on.

 

[pbjosh]

The 'adds nothing new' remark in the review seems odd, because I've found many aspects new to me in comparison with the original book. On taxa that also appear in Oceanic Birds of the World, Howell & Zufelt 2019, Seabirds on the whole is slightly more conservative, although much mention is made of the H & Z take on likely future splits. Furthermore, there are a fair number of very useful references cited, some of which had passed me by or have just become available. For example, Mascarene Petrel Pseudobulweria aterrima post-breeding dispersal from Réunion is shown to be widespread from the Arabian Sea to NW Australia; that's from only the 14 birds whose tags functioned for a year. A summary of this research is given in Saunier et al 2021: it's worth googling the LIFE+ Pétrels project - they also are establishing conservation measures for Barau's Petrel Pterodroma baruai that nests on very steep slopes at 2800 to 3000m altitude on Réunion.
MJB
Saunier, M, J Dubos, P Pinet, L Humeau, C Caumes, P Souharce, YS Mattoir, M Riethmuller, M Le Corre and A Jaeger. 2021. Phenology, at sea distribution and activity of a critically endangered seabird, the Mascarene petrel. LIFE+ Pétrels project (LIFE13BIO/FR/) Poster presentation.

I've not received my copy yet, was just passing on comments I've read elsewhere. Despite mixed reviews, I'm looking forward to my copy - though perhaps with more tempered expectations. I will admit I'm still disappointed with the price and with the lack of a flex cover option.

 

[John Cantelo]

My copy is yet to arrive (my supplier hopes to send it out by the end of the month) but I cannot imagine that this book will be anything other than a huge advance on the original. Are any of the reviews people are referring to online? If so where? I wonder if the criticism follows the line taken over the first edition of Britain's Birds where a handful of hypercritical pundits damned it for relatively minor errors but was broadly well-received by the birding public who saw the bigger picture (that despite the faults it remained a valuable reference).

 

[pbjosh]

The reviews / discussion that I saw was part of personal posting on FB - a friend posted a photo of the book with a comment along the lines of "time to dig in." It generated a lot of discussion from a good number of people. Responses were really mixed. Nobody seemed really over the moon about the book. There was a lot of love for the gulls/terns/skuas. One person particularly really took issue with the Frigatebirds. Opinions on the tubenoses ranged from ho-hum to disappointed, with a few comments that they were about equal in quality to the old book - so one's impression of the new book might track with the old book?

There is a lot more seabird coverage in guides than there used to be, and particularly between Howell and Zufelt, the Australian Bird Guide, the 5th edition of Sasol South Africa, and Bob Flood's North Atlantic guides, there are some really excellent references and plates out there.

I hope that the new Harrison guide will be an equal or better to those references, and will reserve personal judgement until I've seen it

 

[edenwatcher]

In my view Peter Harrison is not a good enough artist to do justice to his immense knowledge of the subject. A wasted opportunity, especially at that price.

Rob

 

[sicklebill]

In my view Peter Harrison is not a good enough artist to do justice to his immense knowledge of the subject. A wasted opportunity, especially at that price.

Rob

Intersting comments here, I never rated Harrison as an artist (but liked the Seabirds first edition despite this), so the price for prints is astounding, good luck with that, i guess some folks still have money! I saw the gulls plates and thought how good they were, I was quite surprised, then comes the news they are by Hans Larsson so that explains that. I don't have a copy of the new book and given our situation here in Australia it's going to be some time before I get one, what with the very slow postal system and lack of income generating opportunities since March 2020!

 

[John Cantelo]

Interesting comments here, I never rated Harrison as an artist (but liked the Seabirds first edition despite this), so the price for prints is astounding, good luck with that, i guess some folks still have money! I saw the gulls plates and thought how good they were, I was quite surprised, then comes the news they are by Hans Larsson so that explains that. I don't have a copy of the new book and given our situation here in Australia it's going to be some time before I get one, what with the very slow postal system and lack of income generating opportunities since March 2020!

Me too. In fact, I admire the way in which by dint of his determination, tenaciousness, and hard graft author/artist Harrison overcame his limitations as an illustrator to produce viable and useful plates. So much better than Baker's effort with warblers but far less good than Reeber's wildfowl and still more so Peacock's waders. If only I had the same grit! I recognised Hans Larsson's name from the start as the artist involved in the Helm guides to terns and later gulls so always I had high expectations of his plates. Incidentally, isn't time that all guides so heavily dependent on high-quality plates gave equal prominence to the artist and author on the dust cover?

 

[Frenchy]

Given Harrison's career in tour leading rich Americans who may well be tipping him $850 as small change, I suspect he has priced his prints accordingly, and he'll probably sell them. He seems like a charismatic guy, and there are lots of people who will love his personality style and be happy to pay peanuts (to them) for one of his prints. The plates themselves will be several thousand $ I imagine, and perhaps already sold??
If you think British tour companies are expensive, check out this one for a start... Oman & Jordan Tour | Apex Expeditions

 

[Andy Adcock]

Just had an -email from Lync / Alada with errata in this title.

ERRATA "SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide" - Lynx Nature Books

ERRATA“SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide” Please find below the list of errors detected in the publication and their corrections. Page 45, Plate 6, captions should be reassigned throughout following the corrected PDF, which can be downloaded and printed. Page 281, Plate 116, label...

www.lynxeds.com