Books > Ornithology (44 items)
 
Sort by: 
 Results Page: (total 5 pages)
  [<< Prior page]   1  2  3  4  5    [>> Next page]  
 
JONES, Henry (1838-1921, artist). - Bruce CAMPBELL

The Bird Paintings of Henry Jones Foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh ... Preface by Professor Lord Zuckerman

London: Folio Fine Editions with The Zoological Society of London, 1976. Oblong folio (15 x 18 inches). Half-title. Title and text printed in green and black. 24 coloured plates (3 plates with two images), all after Jones. Original green half leather over green cloth-covered boards, spine gilt, brown cloth slipcase the upper cover blocked with the arms of the Zoological Society of London.

Limited edition of 500 copies, this copy numbered 114.

During and after a lengthy army career Henry Jones painted and sketched the birds that interested him. Influenced by Archibald Thorburn, John Gerrard Keulemans and Joseph Wolf, Jones produced his watercolours for his own amusement: none of his work was published during his lifetime (although a monograph on the Bustards of the world was proposed), and at his death he left a series of over one thousand watercolours to the Zoological Society of London. The present selection was published both to bring Jones's work to a wider audience and as part of the celebrations of the Society's 150th anniversary. Bruce Campbell provides the detailed descriptions of the birds depicted.

#23810$350.00
 
 
JONES, Howard Edward (1853-1945)

Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio with text

Circleville, Ohio: Robert Clarke & Co. [text] and The Krebs Lithographing Co. [plates] for Howard Jones et al., [1879-]1886. 24 parts in two volumes, square folio (16 5/8 x 14 3/8 inches). Half-title bound as title to the second volume, 1p. list of 39 subscribers (35 for coloured copies, 4 for uncoloured), 7pp. indices (pp.323-329). 68 hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after Genevieve Jones, Eliza J. Shulze, and Virginia E. Jones, all hand-coloured by Genevieve Jones, Eliza J. Shulze, Virginia E. Jones, Nellie D. Jacob, Kate Gephart, or Josephine Klippart, paper guards, plates LV and LVI with numbering corrected by hand, extra-illustrated with six proofs (to plates III, VII, XVII, XLVI, LXII and LXIV), the proofs partially coloured and uncoloured, some with pencil annotations giving colouring instructions and apparently used by the colourist to test samples. Contemporary burgundy half morocco over morocco-grained cloth-covered boards by the Ruggles-Gale Company of Columbus, Ohio, spine gilt in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, with subscriber's name "J.A. Hawkes" at foot of each volume, patterned endpapers, cloth inner joints, red-stained edges. Provenance: J.A. Hawkes (d.1895, Circleville, Ohio, original subscriber, binding).

A fine original subscriber's copy of the first edition of this beautifully-produced work: one of the rarest American bird books containing some of the best illustrations of nests and eggs ever produced. This copy extra-illustrated with six proofs annotated with instructions to the colourist.

The complicated series of events that led to the production of this work is explained in the preface. It was essentially a collaborative venture by members of the Jones family of Circleville, Ohio. The original scheme, founded by Genevieve E. Jones, required that Miss Jones's brother collect the nest and eggs and write the text, whilst the illustrations were to be prepared by Miss Jones and Eliza J. Schulze. Samples were prepared and a prospectus produced 39 subscribers (calling for 35 hand-coloured copies and 4 uncoloured). Amongst the subscribers were the ornithologist Elliott Coues, who proclaimed that "There has been nothing since Audubon in the way of pictorial illustrations of American ornithology to compare with the present work, nothing to claim an equal degree of artistic skill or ornithological accuracy" (quoted by Wood). Also among the subscribers were ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes and the Smithsonian Institute. The present subscriber's copy was sold to J.A. Hawkes the president of the local bank in Circleville. Sadly, Genevieve was stricken with typhoid fever after only 15 illustrations had been finished, and died shortly thereafter, aged 32. Publication was continued as a memorial to Genevieve and her mother Virginia and other collaborators took on the responsibility for the illustrations.

The majority of the plates are of the nests and eggs - sometimes with the eggs in the nest, others show the nest with the eggs arranged beneath, 11 of the plates are of eggs alone. "For accuracy and beauty in the delineation of nests, this work has never been excelled" (Zimmer). The proofs included in this copy include instructions on the colouring of both eggs and nests. Some plates are shown partially coloured, likely as a way to proof the colour. For example, comparison between the proof and eventual Plate LXII shows considerable differences, and it appears that the second row of eggs was dramatically changed during publication.

Howard Jones's text is informed and he adds the kind of personal observations that are such a feature of Audubon's text to his Birds of America. For example, the entry for the Ruby-throated Hummingbird includes Jones description of an individual he tried to keep as a pet. A contemporary source noted that the work "is one of the most beautiful and desirable works that has ever appeared in the United States upon any branch of natural history and ranks with Audubon's celebrated work on birds." (Henry Howe Historical Collections of Ohio [Columbus, Ohio, 1890-1891, vol.III, p.79).

Only six other copies of this work are recorded as having sold at auction since 1900.

BM(NH) II, p. 940; Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 109; H. Howe Historical Collections of Ohio . (1890-1891) III, p.79; Nissen IVB 480 (not calling for subscribers' list or indices); Reese, Stamped with a National Character 94; Wood p. 410; Zimmer p. 339 (lacking subscribers' list and indices).

#22376$48,000.00
 
 
JONSTON, John (1603-1675) and Nicolas ROBERT (1614-1685)

Collection d'oiseaux les plus rares gravés et dessinés d'après nature, pour servir d'intelligence à l'histoire naturelle et raisonnée des différens oiseaux qui habitent le globe... Traduite du Latin de Jonston, considerablement augmentee... De laquelle on afait preceder l'Histoire particuliere des Oiseaux de la Menagerie du Roi... par... Robert... Pour servir de suite à l'histoire des insectes & plantes de Mademoiselle de Merian

Paris: Chez L.C. Desnos, 1772-1774. (19 9/16 x 13 inches). 2 parts in one volume, folio ( x inches). Engraved additional title and 85 engraved plates (the 23 in the second part by Nicolas Robert). Bound to style in 18th-century diced russia gilt, covers with triple fillet border with floral spray cornerpiece, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt made up from various small tools.

A fine copy of Desnos' edition of Jonston's work bound with two selections of engravings by Robert: one of the greatest of all 17th century natural history artists.

The main part of the present work is a French edition of Jonston's work on birds. To this is added a reissue of most of the plates from two of Robert's works on the birds of the royal menagerie at Versailles: Receuil... and Suite des Oyseaux les plus rare, both originally published in Paris in 1676.

Jonston, the grandson of John Johnstone of Craigieburn, Nithsdale, Scotland, was born and raised in Poland. After studying botany and medicine at Cambridge, he travelled extensively before settling in Leiden, where he practiced medicine. Jonston is now seen chiefly as a "learned compilor" (Johnston) and published a very popular natural history (Historiae Naturalis), in 77 parts between 1650 and 1662. His sources were wide ranging, but probably the main influence was Aldrovandi (1522-1605). The first 62 plates in the present work are a reprint of the complete suite of plates from the De Avibus section of Aldrovandi's great work.

The remaining 23 plates are by Nicolas Robert. Robert is one of the two greatest French natural history artists of the 17th century. He made his name illustrating the Guirlande de Julie: a jewel of a manuscript, an album of flowers given as a gift from the baron de Saint-Maure to his fiancée. Robert subsequently worked most memorably on the vélins du Roi botanical drawings and the engravings for the Académie Royale des Sciences work Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Plantes. Whilst working on these commissions for others he also produced his own plates, the present excellent engravings are fine examples of his work.

Anker 238; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.111; Nissen IVB 484; cf. Ronsil 1503; cf. Ronsil 2599 (1st edition of Robert plates); Wood p.410.

#17345$17,500.00
 
 
LATHAM, John (1740-1837)

A General History of Birds

"Winchester" [but London: Henry Bohn], 1821-1828 [but circa 1845]. 11 volumes in 10, (index volume bound in Volume X), 4to (10 1/2 x 8 1/2). 7pp. of subscribers listed, 193 hand-coloured etched plates after and by Latham, some printed in bistre, or blue, most heightened with gum arabic, some heightened in gilt. Contemporary green half morocco by J. Wright of Noel Street, London, spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second compartment, numbered in the third. the others with elaborate repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (neat repairs to joints of vol.10) .

A fine set of a very rare and desireable issue of this great work, limited to 25 copies or less, with spectacular hand-coloured plates "like highly finished drawings"

Describing this revised and expanded second edition, second issue, the late Charles Swann of Wheldon & Wesley Ltd. wrote "It would appear that only 25 copies of this edition were prepared." It is certain that Bohn set out to raise the quality of the plates. The work is listed in Bohn's catalogue of 1847 with a note "This celebrated work was [originally] published at 25 guineas in boards, with the plates coloured in a very inferior manner. The present copies are all coloured like highly finished drawings, with studious accuracy, under the direction of several eminent ornithologists." A significant proportion of the plates are printed in either bistre or blue, and all of them are printed on a specially prepared paper which shows the images to their best advantage.

The superior quality of the plates in this issue is not recorded in the standard references. Brunet notes, of the second edition as a whole, that "Il y a un choix à faire entre les exempl., qui ont été plus ou moins bien enluminés", but does not recognize the two distinct issues. Lowndes records the Bohn issue but makes no comment on plate quality. None of the later more specialized bibliographies mention either this issue or the superior quality of the plates.

Anker 277, 279 (refer); Brunet III 872; Fine Birds Books (1990), p.114; Lowndes II, p. 1314; Mullens and Swann, pp. 339-341l; Nissen IVB 532; Wood, p. 427; Zimmer, pp. 376-7.

#23333$16,500.00
 
 
POPE, Alexander, Jr. (1849-1924) [and Ernest INGERSOLL (1852-1946)]

Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United States

New York: Scribners, [1877-] 1878. 10 original parts in one volume, large folio (22 3/16 x 28 1/4 inches). 20 chromolithographic plates, some finished by hand and heightened with gum arabic, after Pope by Armstrong & Co., all mounted on card (expert repairs to plates and text). Unbound as issued within ten original pictorial cloth-backed paper wrappers (the wrappers with expert repairs), all contained within a single original half morocco portfolio which converts into a display easel, the upper cover blocked in gilt, light brown velvet pastedowns (ties lacking, skillful repairs to corners), contained within a modern blue morocco-backed box, spine gilt, by K. Gaebel & Sons, Holland, Pa.

First edition in the original parts of this scarce series of large-format plates, of equal interest to ornithologists and sportsmen - here housed within a very rare portfolio/easel, as issued by the publishers. Although only Pope's name appears on the title-page, the text is by Ingersoll.

Alexander Pope Jr. was a renowned American sporting artist who specialized in animal and still life paintings. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1849, he studied sculpture with the prominent artist William Copley and was self-taught as a painter. Although primarily lauded as a painter, he continued producing sculptures well into the 1880s and later became a member of the famed art association, the Copley Society of Boston.

Ernest Ingersoll was ideally qualified to write the text for the present work: he grew up 'ranging the fields and marshes in search of natural-history objects', he was educated at Oberlin college and the Harvard museum of comparative zoology, and studied under Louis Agassiz. After the death of Agassiz, Ingersoll served as naturalist and collector on Ferdinand V. Hayden's famous geological survey expedition of 1874, and he made a second trip to the west in 1877. His publications included a number of other ornithological works including A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of American Birds (Salem, 1879) and Birds' Nesting (1881).

Fine Bird Books 101; Gee 80; Nissen, IVB 737; Phillips p. 298; Wood 522; Zimmer 494

#17300$22,500.00
 
 
RAUBER, G. (artist)

An album of original watercolours of birds, with title 'Gefiedertes Volk' [Feathered Folk]

[Germany: circa 1900]. Oblong folio (9 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches). 1p. original calligraphic title in blue red and gold inks and wash within original watercolour decorative surround of a wood and twined-ivy frame with three birds and a background of the jungle at dawn, 1p. original calligraphic index in German in blue, green and gold inks and wash, 85pp. of thin blue card, mounted recto and verso with 178 original ornithological watercolours on watercolour paper (7 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches and smaller) by a single hand (two signed 'G.Rauber'), most with integral title in German in black ink identifying the subject of the watercolour. Original dark blue half cloth, shaped paper label mounted on upper cover with calligraphic title in blue and red 'Aquarelle'.

A charming and wide-ranging collection of original ornithological watercolours.

All the birds are shown against a carefully painted background, most images are of single birds, but a significant number of drawings include two or more species or varieties. As the index makes clear the birds are carefully collected together under eight different headings: the 'Sänger' or songbirds section includes the Baltimore oriole, golden oriole, song-thrush, nightingale, black cap, the hill mynah and about 12 other species; the 'Finkenvögel' or finches includes the cardinal, bullfinch, chaffinch and about 25 other species, 'Prachtfinken' or showy finches is slightly misleading as a title as this section includes a variety of brightly-plummaged birds that are often found in captivity, but are not finches: canaries for example, and the birds in this section are intermingled with the 'Webervögel' or weaverbirds, with a total of about 59 watercolours of about 94 individual birds. The section on 'Papageren und Sittiche' or parrots and parrakeets includes 25 drawings of cockatoos, the African gray, macaws, budgerigars, parrakeets and love-birds. The remaining three sections: 'Hühnervögel' or chickens, 'Schwimmervögel' or waterbirds and a final category for various other sorts of birds: 'Diverses gef Volk' are all intermingled, but include a total of 55 drawings of both exotics and better known species like the blue-jay, swan or jackdaw.

#15179$7,250.00
 
 
ROTHSCHILD, Lionel Walter, Baron Rothschild (1868-1937). - John Gerrard KEULEMANS (1842-1912, artist)

An album of original watercolour drawings of Cassowaries, with related manuscript title "Kasuare / Walter Rothschild"

"London: 1899". Oblong octavo (8 3/8 x 11 1/4 inches). Black ink calligraphic manuscript title, manuscript map in blue ink of New Guinea, northern extremities of Australia and the surrounding islands, hand-coloured with a related key beneath to show the distribution of the various species and sub-species, 7 plates of pen-and-ink and watercolour drawings of various species of cassowary (the first five plates each with three heads, the sixth plate with two heads and the final plate with a fine full-length study of an adult and a young bird). Loosely inserted is an early manuscript listing (in the same hand as the captioning of the plates and the index to the map) of various species of the birds, with common names and locations. Contemporary brown morocco-backed cloth-covered boards, dark red morocco box. Provenance: Otto Fockelmann (of Hamburg, near-contemporary signature in blue ink on title).

Pre-publication presentation manuscript with watercoulour drawings depicting the 17 of the species or sub-species of Cassowaries identified by Rothschild in his "Monograph of the genus Casuarius" published in 1900.

In December 1900, Walter Rothschild published his seminal work on the cassowary in the Transactions of the Zoological Society (vol.XV, pt.5, pp.109-290), which included exquisite plates by John Gerrard Keulemans. The manuscript title of the present album, however, is dated the year prior. The fine watercolours in the present album, each of which bears close comparison with the finished plates as included in Rothschild's "Monograph of the Genus Casuarius," are evidently the work of a fine bird artist, most likely John Gerrard Keulemans himself.

Keulemans worked from the live birds housed in Lord Rothschild's private menagerie at Tring and travelled to Germany to sketch the live specimens at the Zoological Gardens of Berlin. This latter fact, allied with Otto Fockelmann's name on the title may provide the most likely explanation for the existence of this unique pre-publication manuscript. Rothschild was scouring the world for any species or sub-species that had escaped his notice. The Fockelmanns were well-known dealers in rare birds, based in Hamburg, and they would have been contacted to ask if they could help, perhaps by Keulemans at Rothschild's request during one of his trips to Germany.

Before the publication of the monograph, the original watercolours were the most accurate method of recording the species that Rothschild had already identified, and the present images may, in part, have been produced to allow the Fockelmann's to eliminate them from Rothschild's "shopping list". The Fockelmanns were evidently much taken with the drawings, as it seems likely that they were responsible for its current final form: with a German title, a map with German place names, and a loosely inserted index (with Rothschild's name spelt incorrectly, and notes in German) with additional species which had been identified by Anton Reichenow added in 1913. It has not been possible to establish if the Fockelmann's were successful in finding new species for Lord Rothschild.

For the published work, see: Anker 547; Nissen IVB 796; Wood p.543. For Keulemans life and work, see T. Keulemans & Jan Coldewy Feathers to Brush The Vistorian Bird Artist John Gerrard Keulemans (Epse, The Netherlands & Melbourne, Australia: 1982).

#21824$35,000.00
 
 
SAVAGE, Gordon, & Dorothy DOUGHTY

The American Birds of Dorothy Doughty A critical appreciation by Gordon Savage The plates described by Dorothy Doughty Preface by Joseph F. Gimson

Worcester: The Worcester Royal Porcelain Company, 1962. Large quarto (13 x 10 inches). 7pp. list of subscribers. 3 tipped-in portraits, 70 tipped-in colored plates and 11 tipped-in colored photographs. 'Extra-illustrated' with a loosely inserted Parke-Bernet auction catalogue of 'Porecelain Birds modeled by ... Doughty', dated 6 October 1962. (Occasional very light damage to some plates that had stuck together and subsequently been separated). Original tan morocco, paper dust-jacket, slipcase (subscriber's inscription on spine of dust jacket). Provenance: Pansy Ireland Poe (subscriber, signature).

A fine copy of this beautifully-produced limited edition: a limited edition of 1500 numbered copies, this copy numbered 387, with the printed signature of Doughty

A through survey of the American Birds which resulted from the collaboration between Dorothy Doughty and the Worcester Royal Porcelain. The book serves as a memorial to Doughty who died before she was able to correct the final proofs.

#23706$275.00
 
 
SCLATER, Philip Lutley (1829-1913)

Catalogue of a collection of American Birds belonging to Philip Lutley Sclater

London: N. Trubner & Co., 1862. Octavo (8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches). Letterpress title with ornithological wood-engraved vignette by Pearson. 20 hand-coloured lithographed plates by and after John Jennens, printed by M. & N. Hanhart. Original red honeycomb-grained cloth, the covers panelled in blind, the spine blocked and lettered in gilt, yellow-glazed endpapers.

First edition and apparently very rare: "Only 100 copies of the perfect work have been prepared" (note by Trubner & Co. on the wrappers of "The Ibis" for July and October 1862), and Wood and Zimmer record that only 100 copies with plates were published.

This is Philip Sclater's catalogue of his personal collection, which was housed in ten small cabinets cross-referenced to the present work: "I began to form a collection of bird-skins after I commenced my residence in Oxford in 1848, being induced to do so by the advice of ... H.E. Strickland. ... My collection at present consists of about 4100 specimens, representing 2170 species of American birds of the Orders Passeres, Fissirostres and Scansores. Of these 386 are type-specimens, being those from which the original descriptions of the species have been taken. In conclusion, I may add that, in selecting specimens for this collection, one of my great objects has been to illustrate the geographical distribution of the species" (preface). It was this interest in the geographic distribution of birds that led to Sclater proposing zoogeographic regions that are still in use today. Subsequently, Sclater's collection of bird skins were transferred to the British Museum [now the Natural History Museum], beginning in 1886. At around the same time the museum was augmented by the collections of Gould, Salvin and Godman, Hume, and others to become the largest in the world.

Sclater was "the founder and editor of The Ibis, the journal of the British Ornithologists' Union, and secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1860 to 1903. His interest in natural history spread beyond the bounds of the bird family, but some of the birds named after Sclater include: dusky-billed parrotlet (now changed from Forpus sclateri to Forpus modestus); Sclater's monal (Lopophorus sclateri); erect-crested penguin (Eudyptes sclateri); Ecuadorian cacique (Cacicus sclateri); Mexican chickadee (Poecile sclateri) and the bay-vented Cotinga (Doliornis sclateri).

Anker 449; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.139 "only 100 copies issued"; Goode Published writings of Philip Lutley Sclater (1896) 8; Nissen IVB 837; Wood p. 557; Zimmer p. 559 (quoting Trubner).

#23150$1,500.00
 
 
SEEBOHM, Henry (1832-1895)

The Geographical Distribution of the family Charadriidae, or the Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and their Allies

London & Manchester: printed by Taylor & Francis for Henry Sotheran & Co., [1887-1888]. Large quarto (12 5/8 x 10 inches). 21 hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after John Gerrard Keulemans, wood-engraved title vignette and numerous illustrations by or after J.G. Millais, G.E. Lodge, Charles Whymper and others. Original green morocco-grained cloth, upper cover panelled in black with lettering in gilt, lower cover panelled in blind, spine lettered in gilt. Provenance: Charles Atwood Kofoid (1865-1947, bookplate).

The Kofoid copy of the first edition, second issue, of this classic monograph of the shore birds of the world: the plovers, sandpipers and snipe.

The fine plates includes images of birds from Africa, South America, New Zealand and Madagascar. They are the work of John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912): "the major bird book illustrator for 30 years at the end of the 19th century" (C. Jackson, Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World p.314). The plates are ably supported by a large selection of wood-engraved illustrations - the majority with details of plumage or of individual species by Lodge and Millais.

As Seebohm explains in the preface, the main impetus for the work came from the collection and initial research of James Edmund Harting, with subsequent information coming from the collections of Swinhoe and Shelley, as well as the author's own researches. He also made use of the national collections in the British Museum, Salvin and Godman's collection of South American birds and the Smithsonian's collection of birds from the Pacific Islands. Zimmer notes that "The prefatory matter.. is devoted to general remarks on classification, evolution, differentiation of species, glacial epochs, migration, zoological regions and subspecific forms. The main body of the text discusses the various species of shore birds in order, with considerable detail..." He sums up the work as "a valuable repository of information on the subject" with "excellent" hand-coloured plates.

Charles Atwood Kofoid, an American zoologist of note, began collecting books during a trip he made to Europe in 1908-1909. At the time of his death, his library of natural history, zoology, science and medicine was extensive: he bequeathed over 40,000 books on science and the history of medicine to the library of the University of California. The two issues of this work are most readily determined by the frontispieces: the Chilian dotterel features in the present second issue, replacing the slender-billed dotterel found in the first issue.

Anker 455; Fine Birds Books (1990), p.141; T. Keulemans & J. Coldewey Feathers to brush... John Gerrard Keulemans 1982, p.65; Nissen IVB 850; Wood p.561; Zimmer p.568.

#22738$1,750.00
 
 Results Page: (total 5 pages)
  [<< Prior page]   1  2  3  4  5    [>> Next page]  
Copyright © 2002-2010 Donald A. Heald