'Pigeon from the Moluccas'
Annotated and dated Een duif uyt de Molukken, door een liefhebber aldaar, 1730 on the reverse side
Watercolour on paper, 29 x 23.5 cm
This is an early watercolour by an anonymous Dutch painter of a pigeon from the Moluccas, known as the “Molukse muskaatduif” (nutmeg-pigeon). only about twenty-five years after the famous scientist Georg Everhard Rumphius died in Ambon and his famous D’Amboinsche Rariteitkamer was published, illustrated by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717).