Buller's Birds on display at Te Papa

Buller's Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Works of J.G. Keulemans
by Geoff Norman and John G. Keulemans
Published by Te Papa Press

Another one of the big New Zealand books being published in the last quarter of 2012 - big in both size but also in terms of quality and importance.

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand includes the complete set of 95 artworks from both editions of A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Buller and the subsequent supplement, specially photographed and reproduced at original size and in full colour using high quality modern printing techniques. Each bird painting is accompanied by Buller’s original, descriptive text as well as up-to-date taxonomic information in English and te reo Māori.
Uniquely, Buller’s Birds of New Zealand features fresh reproductions of the original watercolour-and-pencil paintings for Buller’s iconic second edition and its supplement, made possible by the author’s rediscovery of these works at the Ornithological Branch of the British Natural History Museum. Bright, luminous and clear, Keulemans’ masterpieces are seen here for the first time as the artist intended.


Bound in cloth and beautifully presented in a slipcase, this edition makes available the masterpieces inside the rarely seen, and highly valued, original books.