This beautiful hornbill lithograph is from Daniel Giraud Elliot's A Monograph of the Bucerotidae, or Family of the Hornbills. The work was published in New York by Taylor & Francis of London between 1877 and 1882. This first edition work is a "comprehensive treatment of the entire family of hornbills" (Zimmer) from one of the best known American ornithologists of the second half of the nineteenth century, with illustrations by John Gerrard Keulemans, the most popular ornithological artist of the period." The lithographs were printed by M. & N. Hanhart.

This is an important first monograph on this widely scattered family of extraordinary birds. "The Bucerotidae are pretty equally divided at the present day between the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions, the first having twenty-seven and the latter twenty-nine species, while but a few... are scattered about the islands of the Malay archipelago" (introduction). Hornbills are extraordinary not only for their physical appearance but also for their behavior - the most noteworthy shared trait amongst the species is the male's habit of "enclosing the female in the hollow of some tree, firmly fastening her in by a wall of mud, and keeping her close prisoner until the eggs are hatched" (introduction). The male will feed the female through a slit in the wall whilst she incubates the eggs. She will only break through the wall of mud and leave the nest once the young have hatched, at which point the wall is rebuilt and remains in place until the young are ready to fly. The bizarre beauty of this species is here ably captured by Keulemans highly accurate and beautifully observed plates. Keulemans was born in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1842, but worked and lived chiefly in England, working on most of the important ornithological monographs and periodicals published between about 1870 and his death in London in 1912. He was "undoubtedly the most popular bird artist of his day as well as being the most prolific. He was gifted with a superb sense of draughtsmanship and revealed his considerable versatility in capturing the significant subtleties of color, form, and expression in the birds... represented in his various illustrations" (Feathers to brush p. 47)

Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915) was an American zoologist. He produced numerous, stunning natural history works recruiting artists that helped form some of John Gould's works. He served as the first curator of zoology for the Field Museum in Chicago. He was the founder of the American Ornithologist Union and one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912) is one of the most respected bird artists whose images were noted for their fine detail. He contributed to some of the best known ornithological works including those of Elliot, Buller, Dresser, and The Ibis. According to Jackson (Bird Illustrators, p. 90), “The great value of Keulemans' work as an ornithological draughtsman lay in his sureness of design of the plate and his accuracy in portraying the birds themselves. The bird figures were carefully drawn and executed down to the last scales on the feet. The feathering was neatly delineated with the different plumes receiving sympathetic treatment.”