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ABBOT, John (1751-1840); and Sir James Edward SMITH (1759-1828)

The Natural History of the rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia. Including their systematic characters, the particulars of their several metamorphoses, and the plants on which they feed. Collected from the observations of Mr John Abbot, many years resident in that country, by James Edward Smith.

London: printed by T. Bensley for J. Edwards, Cadell and Davies and J. White, 1797 [text watermarked 1794; plates watermarked 1817-1821]. 2 volumes, folio (15 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches). Parallel titles and text in French and English. 104 hand-coloured engraved plates by John Harris after Abbot, some heightened with gum-arabic. Expertly bound to style in half calf over contemporary marbled paper covered boards, flat spines in six compartments divided by gilt triple fillets and roll tools, red-brown morocco labels in the second compartments, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.

A fine copy of John Abbot's masterpiece: the earliest illustrated monograph devoted to the butterflies and moths of North America.

John Abbot was one of the most important and prolific of the early American natural history artists. Born in London in 1751, Abbot developed his interest in natural history and drawing as a child. His curiosity about the natural world was encouraged by his parents who were relatively wealthy (at one time the family library included copies of Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands as well as George Edwards' Natural History of Uncommon Birds and Gleanings of Natural History).

Having received sponsorship from the Royal Society of London and the collectors Thomas Martyn and Dru Drury, Abbot sailed for Virginia in July 1773, with orders for both actual specimens and drawings of the local insects. For the next two years he continued to collect and paint, sending home three insect collections, although only one arrived safely. The loss of these two valuable collections at sea together with the worry over political unrest in Virginia led Abbot to move to Georgia: he settled in St. George Parish (later Burke County), Georgia in December 1775.

Abbot traveled widely throughout Georgia devoting his time to the study of the natural flora and fauna. The constant flow of specimen collections and watercolours of insects, and later of birds, ensured that his name became known to many of the foremost natural scientists and collectors of the day, both in America and Europe. Sir James Edward Smith, co-founder and first president of the Linnaean Society of London, recognised Abbot's talents, and responded enthusiastically to Abbot's desire to publish an illustrated work on the butterflies and moths of Georgia, agreeing to edit the work for Abbot. Smith, in the preface to the present work, praised Abbot highly as the first author "since the celebrated Merian", to illustrate and describe the lepidoptera of the American continent scientifically, including both representations of the caterpillars and "the plants on which each insect chiefly feeds." The work is also valuable for the numerous first hand comments and observations that Abbot has added. Like the Botfield copy, this copy was issued circa 1822, with the plates on J. Whatman Turkey Mills wove paper.

Abbot's water-colours are amongst the finest natural history illustrations ever made: elegant and scientifically accurate, they rank with those of his famous contemporaries, William Bartram and Alexander Wilson. William Swainson described Abbot as one of the United States' most important natural history artists, as "a most assiduous collector, and an admirable draftsman of insects. [This] work is one of the most beautiful that this or any other country can boast of" (quoted by Sabin).

Arnold Arboretum, p. 27; BM(NH) I, p. 2l; Dunthorne 287; cf. Pamela Gilbert John Abbot Birds, Butterflies and Other Wonders London: Natural History Museum, 1998; Nissen ZBI 2; Vivian Rogers-Price John Abbot in Georgia: The Vision of a Naturalist Artist Madison, Georgia: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, 1983; Sabin 25.

#25272$67,500.00
 
 
AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851) and Rev. John BACHMAN (1790-1874)

The Quadrupeds of North America

New York: V.G. Audubon, 1854 -1854-1857. 3 volumes, large 8vo (11 x 7 1/2 inches). 155 hand-finished colour lithographed plates by J.T. Bowen from drawings on stone by W. E. Hitchcock and R. Trembley, after J.A. and J.W. Audubon. (Minor foxing, principally to the tissue-guards). Modern half blue morocco gilt, over marbled paper boards, spine in six compartments with quadruped motifs, a.e.g. Housed in cloth slipcases. Provenance: Lilliane Henckel Haass (bookplates).

Audubon's final great natural history work, with plates and descriptions of the quadrupeds of the United States including Texas, California and Oregon, as well as part of Mexico, the British and Russian possessions and Arctic regions.

Audubon's collaborator on the Quadrupeds was the naturalist and Lutheran clergyman John Bachman who had studied quadrupeds since he was a young man and was a recognized authority on the subject in the United States. The two began their association when Audubon stayed with Bachman and his family in Charleston for a month in 1831, this friendship was later cemented by the marriage of Victor and John W.Audubon to Bachman's daughters, Maria and Eliza. Audubon knew Bachman's contribution to the Quadrupeds would be crucial, and endeavored to convince his friend to lay aside his fears about the project. Audubon was eager to begin what he felt could be his last outstanding achievement in natural history, but Bachman was more cautious and worried that they were entering a field where `we have much to learn'. Audubon persisted in his efforts to get him to take part, and Bachman, `anxious to do something for the benefit of Victor and John [Audubon]', eventually relented, with the final condition that all of the expenses and all of the profits should go to the Audubons. By 1835, Bachman had become indispensable to the Quadrupeds project, writing most of the text and editing the entire work.

With the success of the octavo edition of the Birds of America in mind, a similar edition of the Quadrupeds was envisaged from an early stage. The folio edition was published in 30 numbers between 1845 and 1854, and publication of the first octavo edition began in 1849 and was also completed in 1854. The lithographs are reduced versions of the folio plates, with figures and descriptions of the quadrupeds of the United States including Texas, California and Oregon, as well as part of Mexico, the British and Russian possessions and Arctic regions. Unfortunately Audubon did not live to see the completion of either project, and after his death in January 1851 the work was seen through to completion by his son John Woodhouse Audubon.

Bennett, p. 5; Nissen ZBI 163; Reese Stamped With A National Character 38; Wood, p. 208

#21792$9,500.00
 
 
AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851) and Rev. John BACHMAN (1790-1874)

The Quadrupeds of North America

New York: V. G. Audubon, 1849-1851-1854. 3 volumes, large octavo (10 1/14 x 6 7/8 inches). Half-titles in volumes 1 and 3. 155 hand-finished colour lithographed plates by J.T. Bowen from drawings on stone by W. E. Hitchcock and R. Trembley, after J.A. and J.W. Audubon. (Browning and toning mostly to the text and tissue guards, the plates generally clean). Contemporary half black morocco over brown cloth covered boards, spines in six compartments with semi-raised bands, ruled in gilt on either side of each band, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth compartments. Provenance: Mrs. G. V. Barnum (contemporary pencil signatures on pastedowns); Camarillo California, St. John's Seminary (blindstamp on titles).

First edition of Audubon's final great natural history work, with plates and descriptions of the quadrupeds of the United States including Texas, California and Oregon, as well as part of Mexico, the British and Russian possessions and Arctic regions.

Audubon's collaborator on the Quadrupeds was the naturalist and Lutheran clergyman John Bachman who had studied quadrupeds since he was a young man and was a recognized authority on the subject in the United States. The two began their association when Audubon stayed with Bachman and his family in Charleston for a month in 1831, this friendship was later cemented by the marriage of Victor and John W.Audubon to Bachman's daughters, Maria and Eliza. Audubon knew Bachman's contribution to the Quadrupeds would be crucial, and endeavored to convince his friend to lay aside his fears about the project. Audubon was eager to begin what he felt could be his last outstanding achievement in natural history, but Bachman was more cautious and worried that they were entering a field where `we have much to learn'. Audubon persisted in his efforts to get him to take part, and Bachman, `anxious to do something for the benefit of Victor and John [Audubon]', eventually relented, with the final condition that all of the expenses and all of the profits should go to the Audubons. By 1835, Bachman had become indispensable to the Quadrupeds project, writing most of the text and editing the entire work.

With the success of the octavo edition of the Birds of America in mind, a similar edition of the Quadrupeds was envisaged from an early stage. The folio edition was published in 30 numbers between 1845 and 1854, and publication of the first octavo edition began in 1849 and was also completed in 1854. Unfortunately Audubon did not live to see the completion of either project, and after his death in January 1851 the work was seen through to completion by his son John Woodhouse Audubon. The two editions form a fitting memorial to the greatest natural history artist of his day.

Bennett, p. 5; Nissen ZBI 163; Reese Stamped With A National Character 38; Wood, p. 208

#25544$9,000.00
 
 
BRASHER, Rex (1869-1960)

Spring Long Shore

[Kent, CT: : printed by the Meriden Gravure Company for Rex Brasher Associates, circa 1929-1932]. Quarto (12 x 9 3/4 inches). 7 sheets (11 x 7 1/2 inches), with integral illustrations (6 after Brasher, 3 after photographs), mounted recto and verso of 4 sheets of larger blue-toned paper. Original card wrappers, illustrated titling to the upper cover, glassine wrapper. Provenance: E. Harold Hugo (inscription on inside front cover).

A unique off-print, specially prepared by Brasher for the man who shared his dream

E. Harold Hugo (1900-1985), or 'Al' as Brasher knew him, started work for Meriden Gravure Company, at 14. By the time he first met Brasher in the late 1920's he was a sales manager for the firm, and during World War II, he became general manager and in 1950 was named a director. He became president in 1969 before retiring in 1975.

It is generally acknowledged that his greatest business achievement was to ensure that, under his leadership, the company won international renown for the quality of its work, but, perhaps his greatest individual business decision was to champion Rex Brasher's cause within his firm, a cause that was quickly taken up by company's president, Parker Allen.

The company went on to provide (at very favourable rates) the uncoloured gravures that Brasher needed to illustrate his masterwork The Birds and Trees of North America, self-published by Brasher between 1929 and 1932, with 867 plates and numerous other illustrations. Brasher's nephew wrote of this deal: "The compact with Merdiden Gravure officers was altogether heartwarming and inspiring. Here were business men - almost total strangers, indifferent to security of any kind, willing and anxious to help a white-haired man realize a dream. ... It was ... a tribute to Rex. It was a tribute to his work. There could be no other inference. Rex could not help feeling a great flooding surge of satisfaction and new confidence" (M.E. Brasher Rex Brasher Painter of Birds p. 269).

The present unique work, warmly inscribed with a small caricature self-portrait by Rex, was evidently intended by him as a small thank you to the salesmanager who became a friend. The text seems to correspond to that found in volume 11 of Rex's larger work (on Warblers, Wagtails, Pipits, etc.): the text which accompanies plates numbered 663-669 includes a narrative with the same title. The illustrated titling to the upper wrapper includes a version of the head-piece vignette on the first page of the text but is probably especially produced for this work. In effect it is a unique off-print, prepared by Brasher for Hugo because he had said how much he admired Rex's lyrical essay on the Long Island shore.

#25249$1,500.00
 
 
BROWN, Peter (fl.1776)

New Illustrations of Zoology, Containing fifty coloured plates of new, curious, and non-descript birds, with a few quadrupeds, reptiles, and insects

London: printed for Benjamin White , 1776. Quarto (12 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches. Titles and text in English and French, 50 hand-coloured engraved plates by Brown. Uncut and occasionally unopened. Recent dark green half straight-grained morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spine in six compartments with raised bands, tooled and lettered gilt.

An uncut copy, beautifully coloured, of the first edition of this interesting work.

Brown's New Illustrations..., modelled on the earlier work by George Edwards, is based on the main on drawings and specimens from the natural history collections of Marmaduke Tunstall and Thomas Pennant, but also contains 20 plates based on drawings by Ceylonese artist Pieter Cornelis de Bevere from the collection of Dutch naturalist and ex-VOC administrator in Ceylon and Batavia: John Gideon Loten. Writing in his Literary Life, Pennant not only supported his protégé by providing him with specimens, but also wrote much of the text. Brown exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1791, and was, in addition, an accomplished flower painter.

Anker 72; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.82; Nissen IVB 151; Wood p. 264; Zimmer p. 101.

#23666$8,250.00
 
 
CATESBY, Mark (1683-1749)

The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands containing the figures of birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects and plants; particularly those not hitherto described, or incorrectly figured by former authors, with their descriptions in English and French ... By the late Mark Catesby ... Revised by Mr. Edwards ... Histoire Naturelle de la Caroline, de la Floride, et des Isles de Bahama ...

London: printed for Benjamin White, 1771 [plates on wove paper watermarked 1815-1816]. 2 volumes, folio (20 3/4 x 14 1/4 inches). Titles and text in English and French. 220 hand-coloured engraved plates by or after Catesby, 3 plates (61, 80 and 96, volume 2) by Georg Dionysius Ehret, 1 double-page hand-coloured engraved map of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Expertly bound to style in half diced russia over contemporary marbled paper covered boards, spines in seven compartments with raised bands, tooled in gilt on either side of each band, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth compartments, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, red speckled edges.

"Catesby's Natural History is the most famous colour-plate book of American plant and animal life ... a fundamental and original work for the study of American species" (Hunt). A lovely and vastly important work by the founder of American ornithology, this book embodies the most impressive record made during the colonial period of the natural history of an American colony. This is undoubtedly the most significant work of American natural history before Audubon. This copy a fine example of a later issue of the third edition.

Trained as a botanist, Catesby travelled to Virginia in 1712 and remained there for seven years, sending back to England collections of plants and seeds. With the encouragement of Sir Hans Sloane and others, Catesby returned to America in 1722 to seek materials for his Natural History; he travelled extensively in Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas, sending back further specimens. His preface provides a lengthy account of the development of this work, including his decision to study with Joseph Goupy in order to learn to etch his plates himself to ensure accuracy and economy. The end result is encyclopaedic: Catesby provides information not only on the botany and ornithology of the area, but also on its history, climate, geology and anthropology.

Catesby writes in the preface of his method of working: "As I was not bred a Painter, I hope some faults in Perspective, and other niceties, may be more readily excused: for I humbly conceive that Plants, and other Things done in a Flat, if an exact manner, may serve the Purpose of Natural History, better in some Measure, than in a mere bold and Painter-like Way. In designing the Plants, I always did them while fresh and just gathered: and the Animals, particularly the Birds, I painted while alive (except a very few) and gave them their Gestures peculiar to every kind of Birds, and where it could be admitted, I have adapted the Birds to those Plants on which they fed, or have any relation to. Fish, which do not retain their colours when out of their Element, I painted at different times, having a succession of them procured while the former lost their colours ... Reptiles will live for many months ... so that I had no difficulty in painting them while living" (Vol.I, p.vi).

First issued in parts between 1730 and 1747, this 1771 third edition appeared in at least two issues. The first was produced in 1771, and was printed throughout on laid paper. The present copy is a later issue, with the text still on laid paper, but the plates on Whatman wove paper. This wove paper was ideal for the printing of engraved plates as the smooth surface takes an impression much more correctly than the earlier laid paper, where the chain lines produce slight corrugations in the paper surface. Copies vary in the quality of colouring; in the present copy the colouring is superb.

Anker 95; Clark I:55; Dunthorne 72; Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 86; Great Flower Books (1990), p.85; Meisel III:340; Nissen BBI 336, IVB 177; Sabin 11509; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1057; Wood p. 282; Amy Meyers and Margaret Pritchard, Empire's Nature, Mark Catesby's New World Vision, Williamsburg, 1998.

#25220$170,000.00
 
 
COLE, Ralph

The Young Angler's pocket companion; or, a new and complete treatise on the art of angling, as may be practised with success in every river in England;...the art of making artificial flies, etc. To which is now added, a new and most successful method of trolling and laying trimmers...Together with the best method of Smelt fishing

London: for R. Bassam, et al., 1795. 12mo (5 3/8 x 3 3/8 inches). Engraved frontispiece in three compartments (which rebound copies often divide into three plates - cf. Westwood & Satchell, calling for 3 plates). Pp. [i]-iv, [7]-108. (Old paper repairs to verso of frontispiece). Original boards, uncut with later grey calf spine. (Endpapers renewed, spine slightly toned). Provenance: George Brakeley (bookplate).

First edition.

An attractive, tall copy.

Westwood and Satchell p. 62; Heckscher 474 "very rare."

#19058$2,500.00
 
 
COX, James

Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen of Texas and Adjacent Territory.

Saint Louis: 1895. Folio. [1] 743pp, illustrated with plates, portraits, index to the historical section, index of biographies, and an index of illustrations. Without the frontispiece, not issued with all copies. Original gilt-stamped calf with vignette of a longhorn on the cover; rebacked in cloth, repairs at board edges. Minor soiling and wear internally.

One of the "Big Four" Cattle books, with biographies of some 448 cattlemen and extensive contemporary account of the Texas Cattle trade.

One of the so-called "big four" cattle books and, in our experience, the most difficult to obtain. The size and nature of the binding on this book often results in its being found in poor condition. "Supposedly most of the first edition was destroyed in a warehouse fire, hence its rarity today" - Merrill. "The book contains a wealth of information, and is a cornerstone in any range library" - Six Score.

Merrill Aristocrat, p.17; Six Score, 24; Adams Herd 593; Dobie, p.100; Dykes Kid 29; Graff 891; JenkinsBasic Texas Books 34; Howes C820, "b;" Rader 1891; Saunders 2846; Vandale 44.

#26831$8,000.00
 
 
DONOVAN, Edward (1768-1837)

The Natural History of British Fishes, including scientific and general descriptions of the most interesting species, and an extensive selection of accurately finished coloured plates, taken entirely from original drawings, purposely made from the specimens in a recent state, and for the most part whilst living

London: printed by law & Gilbert for the Author and for F.C. & J. Rivington, 1808-1803-1804-1806-1808. 5 volumes in three, octavo (9 x 5 1/2 inches). 120 fine hand-coloured engraved plates by and after Donovan (Plates 50, 51 and 117 with sections of facing text page adhering with matching loss to facing text, browning or spotting to about 25 plates). Contemporary calf, covers tooled in gilt and blind, expertly rebacked to style, blue-green endpapers. Provenance: George Rowley (inscriptions dated 1820).

An elegant and classic work of ichthyology and British Natural History.

In this work, Donovan set out to describe only the fish he had personally examined and illustrate piscatorial portraits from paintings that he executed either from life, or which he painted very soon afterwards, i.e. whilst the subjects "yet glowed with the vivid hues of life ... as it is obviously known that nothing can be more fugitive in general than the colours of the more resplendent creatures of this tribe" (advertisement, at front of vol.I). Donovan succeeded with one exception: plate 68 and its accompanying physical description were drawn up from information supplied by "a very respectable friend." The finely-coloured plates include a number of the rarer visitors to British waters (sun-fish, king-fish, electric-ray, inter alia) as well as all of the common British fish species.

A contemporary reviewer applauded the work: "It is almost superfluous to state the formidable difficulties with which the ichthyologist has to contend, who undertakes to illustrate the history of any considerable portion of the finny tribes. The local predilections of some species, the comparative rarity of others, the change of hues induced by death or even by exposure to the air, and the latent residence of all the families, conspire to render our knowledge of them very imperfect and obscure. Undaunted, however, by such obstacles, Mr. Donovan, who had already eminently contributed to elucidate various departments of British Zoology, has boldly planned and executed the present splendid delineation of our native fishes. By personally visiting the coasts, and searching for his prototypes in their own element, he has been enabled not only to make several additions to the catalogues of his precursors, but to finish a hundred and twenty plates in a very unusual style of accuracy and elegance" (Monthly Review, vol. 61 (1810), p. 238).

Another reviewer concurred, writing: "A work composed of such materials, and in such a spirit can never loose [sic] its value, and we doubt not that the elegant volumes now before us will be looked upon by every competent judge as worthy of a place among the classics of Natural History" (Annual Review, vol. 7 (1809), p. 647).

This set is comprised of first editions of volumes 2--5 and a later issue of the first volume.

BM(NH) I, p. 473; Nissen ZBI 1141; Wood p. 322.

#25460$8,500.00
 
 
DUPERREY, Louis-Isidore (1786-1865) - Alphonse PRÉVOST, Jean-Gabriel PRÊTRE, Antoine-Germain BÉVALET (1779-1850) and others (artists)

Voyage autour du Monde ... Histoire du Voyage. Atlas [ ... Histoire naturelle, Botanique. Atlas]

Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1826. 2 parts (plus 5 plates from a third part) in one volume, folio (19 3/8 x 12 3/4 inches). 2 engraved titles. 'Histoire du Voyage': 60 plates (59 coloured). (Worming to blank margins of plate 1, 3, 12 and 26-30); 'Histoire Naturelle, Botanique': plates 1-13, 13 bis, 14-38 only (of 106, plates 1-13, 13 bis, 14-24 coloured); extra-illustrated with 5 coloured bird plates (numbers 10, 17, 30, 44 and 48) from the 'Histoire naturelle, Zoologie' section. Contemporary French green half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spine gilt in six compartments, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with repeat panelled tooling in gilt, marbled endpapers (front inner hinge split). Provenance: J. Cauvin ('cure de Sceaux 1843', inscription on front free endpaper).

A fine selection of plates from "one of the major French Pacific voyages of the nineteenth century" (Hill)

A complete set of the 'Histoire du Voyage' section with all the hand-coloured plates from the botany section (all of seaweeds) and five attractive coloured bird plates.

The voyage, led by Duperrey, concentrated on the exploration of the Pacific. He had "already circumnavigated the globe under Freycinet. Dumont d'Urville, who would later lead his own expeditions in the Pacific, was Duperrey's second-in-command, Réné Lesson was the naturalist on the voyage. The Coquille called at Brazil, the Falkland Islands, Concepciõn, Callao, and Payta. The Pacific islands visited were the Tuamotu Archipelago, Tahiti and the Society Islands, Tonga, Rotuma, the Gilbert and Caroline Islands, and the Bismarck Archipelago. Australia was visited twice, and explorations made of New Zealand and the Maoris were of particular significance. Vast quantities of ethnographic and scientific data were collected. Before returning to Marseilles, Java, Mauritius, and Ascension were visited" (Hill pp.180-181).

Anker 288; Borba de Moraes p.276; Ferguson 1069; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.93; Hill (2004) 517; Hocken 42; Nissen IVB 42; Nissen BBI 560; Nissen ZBI 1210; Sabin 21353; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1578; Whittel 218

#24369$32,500.00
 
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