The Natural History of British Birds: or a Selection of the Most Rare, Beautiful and Interesting Birds which Inhabit this Country

Very good copy of the first edition in five volumes (later expanded to 10) of this classic of British ornithology.

Complete with 124 beautiful copperplate engravings, drawn, engraved and coloured by the author.

British Birds was originally issued in 50 monthly parts with two plates each, and later published in five volumes in five successive years from 1794-1798. The illustrations were based on specimens in Donovan's personal collections of about 400 species. He paid extravagently for rare birds, buying specimens from collectors and friends, poultry markets, and other museums including John Latham's, Mr Green's of Westminster, and the Leverian.

Complete in five volumes bound in three (Vols. 1 and 2, Vols. 3 and 4, Vol. 5 bound with blank pages at end). The additional Volumes 6-10 were only added 20 years later.

"The paint is laid on so thickly that is frequently impossible to see the engraved lines underneath. The already rich colour is heightened with burnished highlights, albumen overglaze and metallic paint."

Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish naturalist and the author and illustrator of a number of important natural history books on British flowers, birds, shells, insects and animals. A Fellow of the Linnaean Society and the Wernerian Natural History Society, he wrote and illustrated The Natural History of British Insects 1792~, The Natural History of British Birds 1794~, An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of China 1798, The Natural History of British Shells 1799~, An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of India 1800~, The Natural History of British Fishes 1802~, An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of New Holland 1805, etc. He was also a voracious collector, once paying 83 guineas for a rare specimen of a cream-coloured courser, Cursorius cursor, and from 1807 to 1817, he opened his extensive collection to the public as the "London Museum and Institue of Natural History." He died penniless in 1837, bankrupted by his expensive publications and collecting habits, and an acrimonious lawsuit against his thieving publishers, the Rivingtons.

Bound in contemporary green morocco, spines with five raised bands and gilt decoration, leather title and volume labels in red and green, some scuffing and staining to boards, AEG. Bookplates of James Coates Sowerby (1834-1889), a solicitor from Stokesley, Yorkshire. Interior mostly clean, all plates with rich and vibrant hand colour, some slight age-toning and scattered spotting.

A very good set of this classic of British ornithology.