| Description: (Rindisbacher). Wild Turkey Trap. In this wood engraving, cited on p.71 of Josephy(c), five birds, four females and a magnificent male with his feathers fully extended, follow a trail of dried corn into a trench, which ends in a one-way entrance into the bottom of a crib of logs (sort of an unconsolidated, short cabin). More corn has been scattered inside to feed the turkeys. When the food runs out, they are unable to escape (although four are shown trying to do so) and they are harvested by the hunter. The 2-page article, by an unnamed correspondent, starts: 'To embellish this [issue] we have selected, from the inimitable drawings of our friend Rindisbacher [this statement is important, as this is the only illustration which doesn't carry his name], the Wild Turkey; and the pen or trap, in which they are taken.' The writer goes on to describe in detail the construction of the trap and its efficiency. He recounts a two-month period one winter during which he captured 76 turkeys! Born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1806, Peter Rindisbacher and his family emigrated to Canada in 1821. Arriving at York Factory in Hudson Bay, they traveled via canoe and York boats over the major fur trade routes of northern Canada to settle in Lord Selkirk's ill-fated Red River colony near modern Winnipeg. His pictures of the Indians and settlers of the northern plains and woodlands are of tremendous significance and they were produced before such luminaries as George Catlin, Karl Bodmer, and Alfred Jacob Miller even saw the Missouri River. Alas, Rindisbacher died in August, 1834, a mere 28 years old, prematurely ending little more than a decade of productivity. He is perhaps most widely remembered as the artist who drew 'Hunting the Buffaloe' and 'War Dance of the Sauks and Foxes,' which served as frontispieces to two of the three McKenney-Hall folio volumes. Small repair to lower margin, else fine. 7.5x4.5. October, 1833. |
