Dubbed “rats of the skies,” urban pigeons are often viewed as a nuisance today, but these wily birds are in fact feral descendants of esteemed domesticated ancestors. Documented in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform, pigeons have been historically valued as food, holy symbols, pets, and—thanks to a remarkable homing ability—messengers.
Avian enthusiast Emil Schachtzabel (1850-1941) was particularly fascinated by the wide variety of hybrid types that breeders, known as fanciers, created over time. He drew upon the 18th-century European interest in fancy pigeons, which were—and continue to be—bred for unique traits like size, behavior, feather displays, or color.
In his seminal work, Illustriertes Prachtwerk sämtlicher Taubenrassen (1906), often referred to simply as Prachtwerk—a “masterpiece” of pigeon breeds—Schachtzabel chronicled diverse and chimerical varieties. He introduces the “fantail,” the “nun,” the “frillback,” and the “cropper,” the latter of which can balloon its chest to the size of a grapefruit.
The lithographs included in Prachtwerk were based on watercolor templates by Anton Schöner, and the fanciful illustrations merge Schachtzabel’s interest in both the artistry and evolution of the feathered beings.
“Schachtzabel combined two knowledge traditions that had not always overlapped: the practical wisdom of pigeon fanciers and the taxonomical theories of naturalists,” says The Public Domain Review, continuing:
As described in the Prachtwerk’s preface, Schöner positioned his lithographic pigeons at carefully chosen angles to give the fancier a better sense of golden proportions, toward which his or her own breeds could strive.
Prachtwerk is held in the collection of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which has digitized the original book.
