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Item #38726 Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands. Thomas Littleton Powys LILFORD.
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Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands
Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands

Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands

London: R.H. Porter, 1885-1897. 8 volumes, large 8vo. (9 7/8 x 6 1/4 inches). Photogravure portrait, xxxix pp. with 421 hand-coloured lithographs and chromolithographs after Foster, Lodge, Keulemans and Thorburn, accompanied by text leaves describing each species. All plates and text-leaves mounted on linen stubs.

Three-quarter brown morocco and cloth-covered boards, spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered gilt, top edge gilt. Binding by Fazakerley of Liverpool

A fine copy of "perhaps the finest and most perfect ornithological iconography" (Nissen).

This important bird book, which "establish[ed] a new standard of excellence" (Radclyffe), contains the work of some of the finest nature illustrators of their day, including J.G. Keulemans and Archibald Thorburn. Lilford, along with Osbert Salvin (1835-1898) who completed the final parts of work after Lilford's untimely death, were co-founders of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) in 1858 at Cambridge together with Godman. Alfred Newton (1829-1907), Cambridge don and fellow co-founder of the BOU, provided the preface. The book was published in two semi-simultaneous editions, each of 36 parts, between 1885-1897 and 1891-1897 respectively. Godman appears in the subscribers' lists to both editions.

Anker 308; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.119; Nissen IVB 563; see Howard Radclyffe, "Notes on Lord Lilford's Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands" in Archives of Nat. Hist. (1994) 21(1) 11-16; Wood, p.436; Zimmer, p.399; Freeman 2244; Mullens & Swann pp. 354-5.

Item #38726

Price: $3,500.00

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