Thursday, September 11, 2008

Historic Cochins


A generous book collector has donated his antique poultry books to SPPA. They arrived last week. I am unpacking them and cataloguing them.
This lovely drawing on the right is of Queen Victoria's Original Cochins, made by Harrison Weir in 1844, is published in Burnham's New Poultry Book, Elegantly Illustrated, 1871. The changes are remarkable. The photo above was taken by Corallina Breuer for How to Raise Chickens.
Historic sources such as these books are invaluable in documenting the changes in historic breeds. I shall compile a list of the information in each book and make it available to SPPA members for their research.

2 comments:

TXsharon said...

They were much more streamlined back then. Kind of like myself. =)

Amy said...

They certainly don't look like that anymore! What a difference.