Fine Books and Manuscripts

In October 1925, the Ideal Racing Pigeon Club was officially chartered by the American Racing Pigeon Union. Dr. Edgar Burke (1889-1950), a New Jersey surgeon and avid sportsman, joined the club in the 1930s and proceeded to paint the portraits of the prize-winning pigeons that he bred and entered into competition. Burke's handsome portraits reflect his work with Eugene V. Connett III, the publisher of the Derrydale Press, for whom he was commissioned to illustrate two works: Feathered game (1929) and Upland game bird shooting in America (1939).The present archive includes 12 gouache-on-board paintings by Dr. Burke's of his racing pigeons (14 x 17 cm., on average): four of them individually framed and accompanied with certificates documenting the details of their winning races (e.g., nickname, registration number, distance, average speed, weather and wind conditions); two of them individually framed with anecdotal details supplied in typescript; and another six (8 x 8 cm. each) housed together in a single frame, with typescript information about their racing histories provided on the verso, along with an image of the Ideal Racing Pigeon Club's trophy.Also included is a pigeon race timing clock made in Germany by Robert Plasschaert, documenting the unique method of timing pigeon races, as well as the Ideal Racing Pigeon Club's Charter, with 16 of its original members identified in manuscript and signed by the Secretary and President of the American Racing Pigeon Union (Edward Barnes and E. van Wulfen).