Samuel Dixon of Dublin was made famous by his sets of embossed bird and flower pictures issued between 1748 and 1755. These pictures incorporate a technique which Dixon called basso relievo whereby parts of the design were raised by means of a copper plate and then coloured in gouache.
Dixon's first basso relievo set of twelve formal flower arrangements was advertised on the 26 April 1748 in `Faulkner's Dublin Journal'; this article invited `Nobility and Gentry' to purchase these pictures which were `not only ornamental in Lady's chambers but useful to paint and draw after or imitate in shell or needlework'. These very popular `Flower Pictures' encouraged Dixon to produce a `Set of curious Foreign Bird Pieces' advertised the following year, and which the present example is one of the set. The designs for these pictures were taken directly from the first four volumes of George Edward's Natural Pictures of Uncommon Birds, 1743-51, as were the descriptive labels on the back of each picture.
The original set were dedicated respectively to: The Countess of Carrick; Lady Castlecomer; The Countess of Meath; The Duchess of Dorset; The Countess of Antrim; The Countess of Howarth; The Countess of Hillsborough; The Countess of Kildare; The Countess of Cork; The Duchess of Hamilton; The Dowager Countess of Kildare and Lady Molesworth.