Iconographie du règne animal de G. Cuvier

Scarce four-volume set of the plate volumes to Felix-Edouard Guérin-Méneville's Iconographie du règne animal de G. Cuvier, (Iconography of the Animal Kingdom by G. Cuvier). Lacking the text volume as often.

Total of 440 (of 448) handcoloured copperplate engravings and two engraved portraits of Cuvier and Latreille (lacking the portrait of Guerin)

The plates were printed and hand-coloured by Remond, engraved by Jean-Dominique-Étienne Canu and Eugene Giraud after illustrations by Edouard Travies, Felix-Edouard Guérin-Méneville and Louis Victor Bévalet

The stipple engraved plates very finely coloured by hand, finished with gum arabic, some fish plates highlighted with silver.

The series was a complement to Georges Cuvier and Pierre André Latreille's Le Regne Animal which was published without illustrations until the famous disciples' edition. Guerin aimed to "draw from life the most remarkable species of each genus of animals," and often depicted species that had not been previously figured. Cuvier himself praised the illustrations "as accurate as they were elegant." (Anker 191).

Volume 1A, Mammalia and Birds

Engraved portrait of Cuvier, 2 h/c plates of human heads, 47 h/c plates of mammals, and 67 h/c plates of birds

Volume 1B, Fishes and Reptiles

70 h/c plates of fish, 30 h/c plates of reptiles

Volume 2A, Insects

Engraved portrait of Latreille, 110 h/c plates (104 numbered plates plus 6 bis plates) of insects, beetles, bees and butterflies

Volume 2B, Mollusca, Annelides, Zoophytes

38 h/c plates of molluscs, 36 h/c plates of crustaceans, 6 h/c plates of arachnids, 11 h/c plates of annelids, 25 h/c plates of zoophytes

Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville, also known as F. E. Guerin (1799-1874) was a French entomologist. He wrote and illustrated the Iconographie du règne animal de G. Cuvier (1829–1844) and edited the Dictionnaire Pittoresque d'Histoire Naturelle (1836–1839). He also introduced silkworm breeding in France.

Édouard Traviès (1809-1876) was a French watercolorist, lithographer and illustrator. He exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1831-1866 and was primarily known for his paintings of natural history subjects, especially birds. His illustrations appeared in various editions of Buffon from 1839, d'Orbigny's Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle 1849, Lacepede's Histoire Naturelle 1857. His masterwork was Les oiseaux les plus remarquables, 1857.

Half red leather, spines with raised bands and gilt title in English "Cuvier's Animal Kingdom Plates," leather rubbed, cloth boards stained and scatched, marble endpapers, lacking titles. Scattered foxing and age toning to the plates which lack tissue guards, but all hand colour vivid and bright, protected by gum arabic.

A good copy of this rare zoological set.