Eleazar Albin, probably born in Germany, established himself as a watercolour teacher in London by 1708. In c.1709, he met silk weaver and naturalist Joseph Dandridge. Dandridge recommended him to Mrs How, a widow who commissioned studies of insects. Albin later accessed the exotic bird collections of Dandridge and Thomas Lowther, Duke of Chandos, and received patronage from Sir Robert Abdy of Albins, Essex, and Richard Mead, physician to the King, for the publication: ‘A Natural History of Birds’ (1731-38). Some of the 306 plates may have been designs by his son and daughter. Albin’s subsequent publications were ‘A Natural History of Spiders’ (1736) and ‘A Natural History of English Song-Birds’ (1737). He died in London, early in 1742.
