MURRAY, Eliza. South African album 1826. In landscape format, an album of 43 ornithological, botanical, entomological and conchological watercolour studies, most titled, with loose paper attribution to 'Eliza Murray at the Cape of Good Hope' and further details about the family. Bound in the original red morocco gilt, approx 18 cm x 24.5 cm. Pp43 of very competent watercolour paintings in a lively and bright style, each image annotated in pen beneath. Eliza’s choice of subjects is wide ranging, suggesting that Eliza might have had access to a natural history library. She paints a Peruvian hummingbird, a Rio deJaneiro butterfly, a “Chinese Bird” and others, a couple of times noting “from a Chinese drawing”. Eliza painted a praying Mantis which she titled “The Hottentot God” and a quirky “Doodle doos Imaginaire” from “Noland”. Many of the botanical specimens seem to originate from South Africa and might possibly have been painted from life although working from prints at home seems more likely we think.