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Original 1905 Royal Trust Company Bird Calendar featuring twelve beautifully illustrated North American bird species, with a different bird and calendar page for each month of the year.
This is a complete January through December calendar, still held together with its original-style cord binding. Each monthly page features a large color bird illustration along with the bird’s common and scientific name and a small 1905 monthly calendar.
Birds featured include Cardinal, Screech Owl, Chipping Sparrow, Phoebe, Great Blue Heron, Baltimore Oriole, Maryland Yellow-Throat, American Sparrow-Hawk, Downy Woodpecker, Bluebird, Catbird and Bob-White Quail.
The bird imagery corresponds to illustrations appearing in Clarence Moores Weed’s 1904 “Bird Life Stories,” published by Rand, McNally & Company. The color plates in that work were produced from specially prepared bird specimens under the supervision of ornithologist Dr. Ned Dearborn. This Royal Trust Company calendar appears to reuse that imagery as an early advertising/promotional calendar.
A particularly scarce survivor due to its age and completeness. All 12 months remain together rather than having been separated for the individual decorative bird prints.
Condition is antique/preowned with expected age-related toning, discoloration, staining, spotting, edge and surface wear. Cover shows more noticeable staining and wear. Pages remain remarkably attractive for a calendar dating to 1905, with strong color to the bird illustrations. Please review all photographs closely for exact condition.
An excellent piece of early 20th-century advertising ephemera with appeal to collectors of antique calendars, ornithology, bird prints, natural history, banking/financial advertising and early color printing.
Dated 1905 — approximately 121 years old.
Sold complete as shown. Pages will not be separated.
