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Vlyssis Aldrovandi Philosophi Ac Medici Bononiensis. Historiam Naturalem in Gymnasio Bononiensi Progitentis, Ornithologiae Hoc Est De Avibus Historiae Libri XII. In Quibus Aves Describuntur, Descriptae legentibus delineatae ob oculos ponuntur, natura earum, mores &proprietates ita declarantur, vt facile quicquid de Auibus dici queat, hinc petipossit. Adiectus est Index geminus: alter capitum; alter rerum & Verborum

ALDROVANDI, Ulisse

Vlyssis Aldrovandi Philosophi Ac Medici Bononiensis. Historiam Naturalem in Gymnasio Bononiensi Progitentis, Ornithologiae Hoc Est De Avibus Historiae Libri XII. In Quibus Aves Describuntur, Descriptae legentibus delineatae ob oculos ponuntur, natura earum, mores &proprietates ita declarantur, vt facile quicquid de Auibus dici queat, hinc petipossit. Adiectus est Index geminus: alter capitum; alter rerum & Verborum

Frankfurt: Typis Wolffgangi Richteri, Impensis Ioannis Bassaei [volumes 1-2]; Typus Nicolai Hofmanni, Impensis Iohannis Treudelii [volume 3], 1630 [volumes 1-2]; 1613 [volume 3]. 3 volumes in two, folio in sixes (15 x 9 1/2 inches). Text in two columns. [11], 427, [14]; [6], 373, [14]; [8], 40, 33-209, [12] pp. 3 engraved titles, 50 full-page engraved illustrations (images in vol. 3 present as engraved plates without text on verso), each depicting several ornithological figures. (Tab. II in Lib. XIX trimmed along fore-edge into the image, the plate restitched into the text block, scattered staining and edge tears). Early ink annotations to the plates translating the Latin names into English. Contemporary speckled calf, covers double ruled in blind, rebacked to style with raised bands, spine in seven compartments.

An early edition of an important illustrated Renaissance ornithology, including several New World birds.

Aldrovandi's encyclopedic work, first published in Bologna between 1599 and 1603, was among the principal ornithologies of the Renaissance. Divided into twenty chapters, the work describes numberous birds, based on Aristotle's classifications, and include descriptions of plumage, structure, habitat, voice, and more. However, the work is particularly noted for its excellent illustrations. "The value of Aldrovandi's ornithology is enhanced by its many original illustrations, which are often good ... No effort or expense was spared in obtaining the pictorial material on which ... Aldrovandi spent all his fortune" (Anker). Among the illustrations are several early depictions of New World birds, including figures of the Cardinal and Wild Turkey.

Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) was an Italian botanist, pharmacologist, and the author of several encyclopedic works on natural history. "This celebrated naturalist ... devoted his life to lecturing, collecting specimens, and in writing and illustrating numerous treatises on biological subjects" (Wood). He left his collections and library to the town of Bologna, which now reside in the University there. His manuscripts are also in Bologna, including the many woodcut blocks used to illustrate his works and the original drawings from which the blocks were cut.

This later German edition is comprised of volumes one and two of the 1630 edition with a third volume dated 1613; all are printed in Frankfurt. The later editions of his work are significant, as they contain more detailed copperplate engravings, rather than the woodcuts found in the early editions.

Anker, Bird Books and Bird Art, pp.11-12. Taxonomic Literature I, p.28. Wood, Vertebrate Zoology p.184. Nissen, IVB 18; OCLC 29838586.

#21968

$6,000.00

AUDEBERT, Jean Baptiste (1759-1800) & Louis Jean Pierre VIELLOT (1748-1831)

Oiseaux dorés ou à reflets métalliques

Paris: Crapelet for Desray, [1800-]1802. 2 volumes, folio (20 x 13 inches). Half-titles, section titles, 2pp. list of subscribers. 190 fine engraved plates, printed in colours, by and after Audebert, printed by Langlois (all with the plate captions printed in gold, most with gold highlights to the birds, 1 plate double-page). Contemporary diced russia, expertly rebacked to style, spines in seven compartments with raised bands, black morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, red morocco in the fourth, the others with elegant repeat neo-classical design, gilt turn-ins.

First edition, deluxe folio issue with the plate captions printed in gold: limited to 200 copies. A fine copy of "one of the most beautiful books of its era" ('Fine Bird Books) and the best early work on humming-birds, jacamars, promerops, tree-creepers, birds-of-paradise and other tropical birds.

The "colours of the birds and their handsome appearance have evidently been the cause of their selection for inclusion in the book. The plates ... are in beautiful colours ... [and] are among the best colour prints found in ornithology" (Anker). They were etched by Audebert from his own designs and those of the "very best painters of Paris and London." He received help with colouring from Louis Bouquet and with the printing in oil-colours from Langlois. The exact method used in the printing of the plates was of Audebert's own invention and involved the extensive use of gold for both the captions and the highlights. As Fine Bird Books points out, it is these "gold reflections of the plumage that renders this book unique and wonderful." The plates include three plates of details, 19 of Colibris; 50 of Oiseaux-Mouches; 6 Jacamars; 9 Pomerops; 88 Grimpereaux and 15 Oiseaux de Paradis. The text is largely by Vieillot who saw the work through to completion using Audebert's notes following the latter's death in 1800.

Among the most desirable books on these delicate and beautiful tropical birds of South America, Africa, southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Anker 14; BM (NH) I, p.71; Balis 52; Buchanan Nature into Art 105; Cottrell 19; Ellis/Mengel 93; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.73; Nissen IVB 47; Ronsil 103; Zimmer 17.

#18740

$60,000.00

Autograph letter signed, to his sons Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse Audubon, concerning the publication of the second volume of his Ornithological Biography.

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)

Autograph letter signed, to his sons Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse Audubon, concerning the publication of the second volume of his Ornithological Biography.

Edinburgh: 6 December 1834. 1p., single 4to sheet (10 x 8 inches). (Backed with paper at an early date, small loss from opening touching two words).

Important letter by Audubon to his sons, concerning the publication of his Ornithological Biography and shipping bird skins and watercolours back to America.

The unpublished letter reads, in part: "I revised the introduction last evening with [William] Mac Gillevray, therefore the book you may conclude is nearly out! We think that by Tuesday next it will be before the readers here; at least some copies of it. Charles Black and father will be agents here on the same terms as before, but I will leave 200 copies only with them, 20 with Hill and will send a proportional number to our agents according to the demands that may be expected at their respective places. All the rest I shall ship by steamer to Havell. A review will appear on the 1st of Jany. in Jameson's Journal and I believe another in Blackwood's Magazine. We ship you now by the Royal William steamer one large new box containing 352 bird skins, which take great care of, all the mss of the 1st and 2d vol. Biographies, my Journals, sundry books, 55 original small drawings including several of eggs (10 it seems were not sent here by you), 18 middle size (2 wanting) and 20 large ones, drawing paper, brushes, &c &c, 24 plates water birds, our government letters ... " The remainder of the letter concerns their impending travel back to America. and closes, "I regret that we have to call on Mrs. G[ifford] at Duffields for I have much to do in the way of Drawing and writing the whole of this winter..."

As early as November 1826, Audubon had begun thinking about the text which should accompany his monumental engraved illustrations of birds. He noted in his journal: "I shall publish the letterpress in a separate book, at the same time with the illustrations and shall accompany the descriptions of the birds with many anecdotes and accounts of localities connected with the birds themselves ..." (M.R. Audubon Audubon and his journals 1897, vol.I, p.163). Audubon had taken the decision to publish the letterpress separately because, according to British copyright law, had the letterpress accompanied the engravings, Audubon would have been obliged to deposit a copy of the work in each of the nine copyright libraries in the United Kingdom. This would have placed a strain on the economics of the production of the book. Work on the text did not begin in earnest until the end of 1830, just as Havell was nearing the completion of the engraving of the first 100 drawings. In the present letter, Audubon discusses the completion of the second volume of the work.

#26411

$11,000.00

Ornithological Biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America; accompanied by descriptions of the objects represented in the work entitled The Birds of America, and interspersed with delineations of American scenery and manners

$2,750.00

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)

Ornithological Biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America; accompanied by descriptions of the objects represented in the work entitled The Birds of America, and interspersed with delineations of american scenery and manners

Vol. I: Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart, 1832; vol.II: Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1835; vol.III: Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black [and others], 1835 [but with New York 1836 copyright slip pasted onto the half-title]. Volumes I-III (of 5), octavo (10 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches). Half-titles, 16pp. prospectus to 'The Birds of America' at the end of vol.I. (Some old dampstaining to volumes I and II). Uniform near-contemporary black half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines in five compartments with semi-raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth compartments (extremities scuffed, inner hinges strengthened with cloth at an early date, vol.III lacking the front free endpaper). Provenance: Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838, each volume inscribed by John James Audubon and dated Boston, September 27th 1836); Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892, signatures).

Very rare inscribed copies of American editions or issues of the first volumes of Audubon's textual accompaniment to his 'Birds of America': the provenance is particularly important as it recalls the friendship between Audubon and Nathaniel Bowditch, another great self-made scientist.

Volume I is the second issue of what Ellis describes as "a separate American edition of volume I of this famous work." The first issue was published in 1831 with a different imprint. This issue is made up from the sheets of the first issue with an updated title. According to Zimmer, "it differs in some particulars from the Edinburgh edition. Some of the wording of the introduction is altered; that of the general text appears the same with minor changes in punctuation and the correction of at least one error ... The letterpress is parallel, to a considerable degree, line for line, but there are many places where differences exist ... The sixteen pages of advertising at the close of the volume consist of a prospectus of the folio, 'Birds of America,' with a list of the one hundred plates in vol.I of that work and the year of publication of each plate. Extracts from the reviews and a list of [180] subscribers are added'' (Zimmer pp.19-20).

Volume II was published in Boston, and described by Ellis as a "second edition of volume II ... the only American edition of that volume, and the only edition of any volume bearing a Boston imprint.''

Volume III was published in Edinburgh, but marketed in the United States as the pasted-on copyright slip demonstrates. This is a close as it is possible to get to a US edition/issue of vols.III-V of the Ornithological Biography, as there were no US printed editions of these volumes.

The provenance of these volumes is particularly appropriate. Both Audubon and Nathaniel Bowditch rose to the top of their chosen fields by their own efforts. Despite relatively humble beginnings, Bowditch showed a genius for mathematics and an interest in maritime trade, a combination which, when allied with a flair for business, translated into a successful and productive life in many fields. He is today perhaps best remembered for his The New American Practical Navigator (first published in 1802).

Audubon had evidently known Bowditch for some time before the present volumes were inscribed, but the probable background to the inscriptions is as follows. Audubon had arrived in Boston from New York on business, on 20 September 1836. His visit was productive: he procured a number of specimens, made contact with friends (including Nathaniel Bowditch), visited individuals and institutions in Boston (and nearby) who were potential subscribers, and met Daniel Webster and Washington Irving (both of whom gave him letters of introduction). On the 27th September 1836, the date of the inscriptions in the present volumes, Audubon recorded in his journal that John Quincy Adams delivered a eulogy on President Madison during the day, and that in the evening he (Audubon) attended a dinner hosted by the President of the Natural History Society, Dr. B.C. Green. It was possibly here that Audubon took the opportunity to inscribe the present volumes. The inscriptions are sincere and show Audubon's admiration for Bowditch. There are slight variations between the three volumes, but the wording of the inscription in vol.III is typical: "To / Nathl. Bowditch Esq / with the best wishes and high / esteem of his friend & servant / John J Audubon / Boston Sepr. 27th 1836"

Nathaniel Bowditch lived for only another 18 months, and these books subsequently passed into the possession of his son Henry Bowditch, who signed them on each title and again on each front pastedown. The style of the bindings, together with the fact that one of the original Audubon inscriptions is shaved suggests that it was possibly Henry who had the books bound. Dr. Henry Bowditch was also a figure of note, who is today best known as an ardent anti-slavery campaigner.

Cf. Anker 18; cf. Fries Double Elephant Folio, Appendix F "Editions of Audubon's Prospectus", p.389; Mengel/Ellis 98 & 99 ('A separate American edition of volume I of this famous work'); cf. Howes A-389; Wood p.208; Zimmer p.19

#24440

$25,000.00

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)

The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories

New York & Philadelphia: Audubon and J.B.Chevalier, 1840-1844. 7 volumes, royal octavo (10 x 6 1/4 inches). Half-titles. 500 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembley and others, printed by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia (plates 1-135, 151-500) or George Endicott of New York (plates 136-150), numerous wood-engraved anatomical figures in text. Period crushed purple morocco, gilt lettering and ruling to spines, gilt borders, dentelles and edges, marbled endpapers. (Expert repairs to vol. 7 spine). Provenance: J. Gregory Smith, 1818-1891, railroad magnate and Vermont Governor from 1863 to 1865 (bookplates).

The first octavo edition of Audubon's Great National Work. This is the first complete edition and the first American edition. The work is one of the "most beautiful, popular, and important natural history books published in America in the nineteenth century... representing the best of pre-Civil War American lithography and giving Audubon the opportunity finally to display his scholarship and genius to a large American audience for the first time" (Ron Tyler).

The plates, here accompanied by the text for the first time, were reduced and variously modified from the Havell engravings in the double-elephant folio. Seven new species are figured and seventeen others, previously described in the Ornithological Biography but not illustrated, were also shown for the first time. Audubon may have been prompted to publish the reduced version of his double-elephant folio by the appearance in 1839 of John Kirk Townsend's rival Ornithology of the United States; or, as he writes in the introduction to the present work, he may have succumbed to public demand and his wish that a work similar to his large work should be published but "at such a price, as would enable every student or lover of nature to place it in his Library."

The first edition of the octavo work is certainly the most famous and accessible of all the great American colour plate books, and now represents the only realistic opportunity that exists for collectors to own an entire collection of Audubon images in a form that was overseen and approved by the great artist himself. The octavo Birds of America was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates. The whole story of the production of the book, with detailed information about every aspect of the project, is told by Ron Tyler in Audubon's Great National Work (Austin, 1993). The story Tyler tells of the difficulties of production and marketing are revealing of the whole world of colour plate book production in mid-19th-century America. By combining detailed text with careful observations next to his famous images, Audubon proved that he was as good a scientific naturalist as the members of the scientific establishment who had scorned him.

Bennett p.5; Fries, Appendix A; Nissen IVB 51; Reese Stamped With A National Character 34; Ripley 13; Ron Tyler Audubon's Great National Work (1993) Appendix I; Sabin 2364; Wood p.208; Zimmer p.22.

#26488

$95,000.00

A History of North American Birds ... Land Birds ... [With:] Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Vol. XII. The Water Birds of North America

BAIRD, Spencer Fullerton (1823-1887); Thomas Mayo BREWER (1814-1880); and Robert RIDGWAY (1850-1929)

A History of North American Birds ... Land Birds ... [With:] Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. Vol. XII. The Water Birds of North America

Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1875-1884. 2 works in 5 volumes, 4to (10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches). Land Birds: 64 hand-coloured lithographs and numerous illustrations. Extra-illustrated with 36 hand-coloured lithographs after Ridgway. Water Birds: 493 illustrations (including 332 finely hand-coloured). Contemporary uniform half blue morocco over marbled paper covered boards, spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and third, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, a.e.g.

A rare deluxe, coloured and extra-illustrated edition of Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's classic of American ornithology, here complete with both separately-issued parts in a uniform contemporary binding.

"This work contains a description of the birds of North America north of Mexico, including Greenland and Alaska. The focus of this work is an account of the life history of the species, to which is added information about the geographical distribution of the birds and a brief descripion of the eggs and the individual species. Baird and Ridgway supplied the descriptive parts of the work, while Dr. Brewer dealt with the habits of the birds" (Anker).

Little Brown & Co. advertisements confirm that their Land Birds was issued with 64 plates (uncolored at $10 per volume, or coloured at $20 per volume). However, a letter from the librarian at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia published in the October 1902 issue of the Auk reveals the existence of the present deluxe issue of the Land Birds, with additional hand-coloured plates after Ridgway: "While the existence of an edition of this work with these plates may be known to many ornithologists, yet there is no printed record of such, as far as the present writer is aware. No mention of these plates is made in Coues's 'Bibliography' nor in the several reviews of the 'Land Birds' to which I have had access. Dr. C. W. Richmond informs me that Mr. Ridgway has never seen a copy of the work with these plates although he has some loose plates in his possession" (letter from William J. Fox published in The Auk, October 1902). Neither Nissen, Anker, Zimmer nor Sitwell mention this deluxe issue. The present copy of the Water Birds would also appear to be a deluxe issue with the in-text illustrations exceptionally well hand-coloured, with the eyes the the birds finished with gum arabic.

"One of the great works on North American ornithology and for many years a standard reference ... the first major work on North American birds to supersede Audubon's Ornithological Biography of 1831-39 as a comprehensive general source" (Ellis Collection).

Nissen 63 and 64; Anker 25; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books, page 75; Ellis Collection 137 and 140; Zimmer, pp. 34-35.

#26284

$12,000.00

The Birds of North America; the descriptions of species based chiefly on the collections in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution

BAIRD, Spencer Fullerton (1823-1887), John CASSIN (1813-1869) and George Newbold LAWRENCE (1806-1895)

The Birds of North America; the descriptions of species based chiefly on the collections in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1860. 2 volumes, quarto (11 1/2 x 9 inches). 100 hand-coloured lithographic plates by Bowen & Co. of Philadelphia. Original purple bead-grained cloth, the covers blocked in blind with an elaborate border, expertly rebacked to style, the flat spines divided into five compartments by triple fillets in blind, lettered in gilt in the second, third and fourth compartments, cream endpapers. Provenance: Pebble Hill Plantation (Thomasville, Georgia, bookplates).

An important American work of ornithology by two of the foremost American ornithologists of the 19th century, beautifully illustrated with colour plates.

The chief virtue of this spectacular contribution to the literature of American ornithology is that it completes the work started by the first octavo edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America (1840-1844) and continued by John Cassin's IIlustrations of the Birds of California, Texas [etc.] (([1853]-56). As Baird notes in the preface: "the first series [of Cassin's work], containing fifty species not given by Audubon, was completed in 1855, and has not been extended, having been superceded by the present work" (Preface, p.I, Atlas vol.).

"The present work is part of the General Report on North American birds ... published in October, 1858, as one of the series of "Reports of Explorations and Surveys of a Railroad Route to the Pacific Ocean." In this volume, however, will be found many important additions and corrections, including detailed lists of plates, ... descriptions of newly-discovered species, &c, not in the original edition. The Atlas contains one hundred plates, representing one hundred and forty-eight new or unfigured species of North American birds. Of these plates about fifty appear for the first time, having been prepared expressly for this work. The remainder form the ornithological illustrations of the Reports of the Pacific Railroad Survey [1858], and of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey [1859] under Major Emory ... All have, however, been carefully retouched and lettered for this edition, and quite a number redrawn entirely from better and more characteristic specimens. In fact, the plates of the Atlas have been prepared for the present edition with the utmost care and attention" (Advertisement, vol.I).

Bennet p.7; Meisel III, p.484; Sabin 2809.

#23086

$2,000.00

BONAPARTE, Charles Lucian (1803-1857)

American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of Birds inhabiting the United States, not given by Wilson.

Philadelphia: Samuel Augustus Mitchell [vol I]; Carey, Lea & Carey [vols II & III]; Carey & Lea [vol IV], 1825-1828-1828-1833. 4 volumes, folio (15 x 12 inches). 27 hand-colored engraved plates by Alexander Lawson (11 after Titian R. Peale, 15 after A. Rider, and 1 after J.J. Audubon and A. Rider). Extra-illustrated with 5 uncoloured engraved plates in vol. IV. (Usual paper toning in vol. IV, minor offsetting in vols. II-IV, short repaired tear to an uncoloured plate in vol. IV). 19th-century black half morocco over green cloth-covered boards, the spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth, the compartments bordered in gilt with double fillets, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Provenance: Juliette Clary (inscribed by Bonaparte on the vol. I title, "Offert par l'auteur a sa Cousine Juliette").

A very fine set of the first edition, first issue of this important American ornithological work, inscribed by Prince Bonaparte to his cousin and with additional uncoloured states of the plates in volume four.

Bonaparte's important continuation of Wilson's American Ornithology describes 60 birds not in the original work. "A love for the same department of natural science, and a desire to complete the vast enterprise so far advanced by Wilson's labors, has induced us to undertake the present work," Bonaparte writes in the preface, "in order to illustrate what premature death prevented him from accomplishing, as well as the discoveries subsequently made in the feathered tribes of these States."

"The work which had been performed by Wilson's hands alone now gave employment to several individuals. Titian R., the fourth son of Charles Wilson Peale, not only collected many of the birds figured while on the Long expedition, which were credited to Thomas Say, who originally described them in footnotes scattered through the report; or in a subsequent private trip to Florida during the winter and spring of 1825, under the patronage of Bonaparte; but also drew the figures engraved for the first, and two plates for the fourth and last volume. A German emigrant by the name of Alexander Rider, of whom little is known beyond that he was a miniature painter in 1813, and a portrait and historical painter in 1818, was responsible for the remainder of the drawings with the exception of the two figures of plate 4 of volume I..." (Frank L. Burns, On Alexander Wilson).

That plate, the Great Crow Blackbird, is notable as being the first book appearance of any engraving after John James Audubon. Perhaps the most influential artist involved with the work, however, was Bonaparte's master engraver Alexander Lawson, arguably the most talented ornithological engraver in America at that time.

Three issues of the first edition of Wilson's continuation have been identified. This fine set is comprised of the rare first issue of vol. 1 (with the Mitchell imprint and containing the first issue of plate 6 in that volume (see Ellis/Mengel) and with first issues of volumes two through four (published by Carey & Lea and printed by William Brown). Carey & Lea later reissued the first volume, with their own imprint, after purchasing the rights to the publication from Mitchell in 1828. The third issue includes volumes reprinted by T.K. and P.G. Collins (with their imprint replacing that of William Brown) for Carey & Lea with unchanged dates on the titles but actually printed in about 1835 after the completion of the final volume.

We are aware of the existence of only one other inscribed set of Bonaparte's Ornithology to have appeared on the market in the last 30 years, inscribed to the Count Charles de Chatillon.

Anker 47; Bennett 16; Coues 1:609; Ellis/Mengel 312a-b; Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 78; Nissen IVB 116; Sabin 6264; Wood 247; Zimmer p.64.

#22742

$15,000.00

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

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