Exotic Ornithology… by Sclater, Philip Lutley; & Slavin, Osbert - 1866-69

Nurnberg: Johann Andreas Endter & heirs of Wolfgang, 1668. Hardcover. Good. Fine full-page engraved plates (65) numbered 1-63 with 2 bis plates (45 & 47) + 1 text illustration +full page elaborate copperplate coat of arms of Leopold I by C.N. Schurtz.. Folio old vellum (spine split repaired, front cover nearly detached). Bookplate of Bibliotheca Prieseriana (showing books on shelves) and small library stamp on pastedown. Titlepage in red and black with printer's mark of 2 female supporters with sun shining on clasped book with monogram AEW. Titlepage +36pp including full page copperplate coat of arms of Leopold I by C.N.Schurtz +1762pp + 34pp indices + [2]pp errata with a few part-lines of loss to lower outer corner & tatty edges. Double column Gothic type with shoulder notes throughout. Two marginal tears with loss hardly touching print & first page of dedication with cropping to outer edge, some corner creases, else clean and no worming/no foxing/no ink marks. Despite its huge bulk the book block… Read More

Folio (12" x 15"), publisher's leather, somewhat crudely rebacked, gilt title on front cover, illustrated with engraved frontispiece and 119 chromolithographed plates with tissue guards, 182, [8] pp. Binding shaken, top cover and spine and front endpapers partially separated from text block, back joint cracked, but still attached, significant wear to covers around extremities, bookplate on front pastedown; contents clean and bright. Published in several editions, the plates are extremely attractive. Studer (1840-1904) was born in New York City, and would become a printer and lithographer. He was also an ornithologist, and seems to have been active in this field in the Columbus, Ohio area after the Civil War. However, it is believed that the plates were based on drawings by Theodore Jasper. The plates while very attractive, are believed to be designed to help with identification. Size of book will require extra postage. online Cornell library website.

Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, 1854. Hardcover. Near Fine. First combined edition, later printing, 1854. With 236 fine hand-colored plates (both engravings and lithographs) each with a tissue guard. Bound in half dark green morocco, spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt in two compartments, covers have a large gilt-stamped botany illustration in gold on both the front and rear covers, antique marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, lg 8vo (10 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches). The first volume of Michaux covers pines and firs, walnut and hickories, the second volume presents 20 different oaks, with maples, birches, beeches, chestnuts, and nyssas among other groups, and the third volume documents the magnolias along with ribinias, the tulip tree, the catalpa and others. The Volumes II and III of the Nuttall volumes (this set lacks Volume I) cover trees left out of Michaux as well adding descriptions of trees from Oregon, California and the Rocky Mountains where Michaux did not explore and collect. The first… Read More

1812. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, (1812-) 1816 4to. Bound in a fine contemp. full calf with broad rectangular gilt borders on covers. Inner gilt borders. Professionally re-backed to style and spine richly gilt. Fine repairs along edges and to corners. Engraved frontispiece-portrait of Hooker. (28) incl.htitle,20 pp., (2) pp. of Index. Unnumbered leaves with descriptions to each plate. Complete with 88 fine hand-coloured engraved plates (Numb. I-LXXXIV and Supplementplates I-IV (bound first). Portrait with some brownspots, some offsetting from portrait to title. Inner margins of portrait and title-page with 2 larger brownspots, not reaching the text or the engraving. Otherwise a fine clean copy with broad margins, printed on good paper. Exquisite handcolouring. Interesting presentation-copy of the scarce first edition of Hooker's first botanical work, which is not only considered his most beautiful, but which is also the work that established hepaticology (the science of… Read More

Strasbourg: Argentinae: Ex officina Martini Flach junioris, 1501. Half leather. Fine. Folio, printed in Strassburg by Martin Flach, 7 February 1501; 161 unnumbered leaves. BINDING: new Gothic hand-sewn oak binding by Arthur Green of Malvern; tawed quarter leather over quarter-sawn oak boards, quires hand-sewn on four double-cords creating four raised spine bands, board leather blind-tooled with period style rosettes and fleurs-de-lys within panel of diagonal blind triple fillets, hand-sewn Gothic double headbands of alternate hand-dyed indigo and undyed linen thread, hand-made brass hasps and clasps ornamented in period style; an exceptionally attractive recreation of a Gothic hand-sewn binding employing medieval techniques contemporaneous with the date the book was printed. COLLATION: [pi]6, a2-8, b-y6, z8, zeta6, antisigma8; leaf a1 excised and subsequent first few lines of a2[recto] redacted in black ink in the sixteenth century by the inquisitor for its heretical content (see below). TEXT: Double… Read More

London: James Ridgeway And Sons, 1842. New Series. Hardcover. Orig. publisher's green cloth. Very good. 10 vols. 26 x 17 cm. Total of 688 hand-colored engraved botanical plates with tissue guards, lacking 26 plates. The young Edwards made some drawings from the plates in the "Flora londinensis" which eventually caught the eye of Curtis who was sufficiently impressed with the work to arrange for Edwards to come to London for further training and instruction. Eventually he made many hundreds of drawings for "The Botanical Magazine," and severed his connection to Curtis only when he started his rival periodical in 1815 described here [see: HENREY, Vol. II, p.306]. NISSEN 2739. Plates very fresh and clean, descriptive data rear of each volume partly unopened, covers decorated in blind, backstrips lettered and decorated in gilt. minimal shelf wear. Glasgow booksellers' label. Vol I lacks [5,22,29,32-33,38,49,58,65]. Vol.2 [13]. Vol. 3 [2,46,50,56]. Vol.5 [37]. Vol.6 [1,42,53,58]. Vol.7 [37.52.67]. Vol.9… Read More

Philadelphia: W.M. Rutter, 1871. leather_bound. 184, 180, 180, 207, 215. 27 x 19 cm. 277 colored plates -- 156 hand-colored plates (MIchaux) and 121 lithographic plates with hand-coloring (Nuttall), plus engraved frontispiece of Michaux. The Michaux plates were drawn by the Redoute brothers, and Pancrace Bessa. Originally published 1810-1813, translated into English by Hillhouse, 1817. Reissued in Philadelphia, 1850-1851 with Notes by J.J. Smith. Nuttall's Supplement was issued in 1853. SABIN 48695. "Of the two works united, it is no exaggeration to remark that it is the most complete work of its kind, and is a production of unrivaled beauty, giving descriptions and illustrations of all the forest trees of North America, from the arctic limits of arborescent vegetation to the confines of the tropical circle." NISSEN 1361 & 1458. Index. Raised bands, spine labels lettered in gilt, armorial bookplates of Grenville-Lindall-Winthrop, plates and text clean, hint of toning limited to free endpapers first… Read More

Folio (12" x 15"), publisher's leather, somewhat crudely rebacked, gilt title on front cover, illustrated with engraved frontispiece and 119 chromolithographed plates with tissue guards, 182, [8] pp. Binding shaken, top cover and spine and front endpapers partially separated from text block, back joint cracked, but still attached, significant wear to covers around extremities, bookplate on front pastedown; contents clean and bright. Published in several editions, the plates are extremely attractive. Studer (1840-1904) was born in New York City, and would become a printer and lithographer. He was also an ornithologist, and seems to have been active in this field in the Columbus, Ohio area after the Civil War. However, it is believed that the plates were based on drawings by Theodore Jasper. The plates while very attractive, are believed to be designed to help with identification. Size of book will require extra postage. online Cornell library website.

United Kingdom, 1840. Book. Very Good. Leather. Original. 24 x 29.5 Cm. A collection of 43 very fine, early/mid 19th century, comparatively large (approximately 285 x 235 mm), original watercolour studies of different species of South African Ericas, each autographed with the species name. Housed in a red straight-grained morocco case with closing flap and the words "In Memoriam Madre Mia" (in memory of my mother). While there is no reference to the originator of these studies, they are executed in a style close to that used by Henry C. Andrews for his Monograph on the Genus Erica (1804-1812). The present watercolours do not correspond directly to those but the composition is similiar and it is possible they were executed by Andrews in connection with the publication. Notwithstanding, they are highly accomplished, reminiscent of the best botanical artists of the day. They are painted onto fine-textured card; this card for a number of paintings is blind embossed to the corners… Read More

Engraving with etching, aquatint and hand-coloring on 1836 watermarked J. Whatman hand-made paper. Unusually wide, untrimmed margins showing the pulls from the binder's signatures on the left margin and the gilt to the top edge. "I closed my eyes, and was passing away into the world of dreaming existence, when suddenly there burst on my soul the serenade of the Rose-breasted bird, so rich, so mellow, so loud in the stillness of the night, that sleep fled from my eyelids. Never did I enjoy music more: it thrilled through my heart, and surrounded me with an atmosphere of bliss. One might easily have imagined that even the Owl, charmed by such delightful music, remained reverently silent. Long after the sounds ceased did I enjoy them, and when all had again become still, I stretched out my wearied limbs, and gave myself up to the luxury of repose." John James Audubon