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Item #41995 Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves. John Frederick MILLER, George SHAW.
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Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves
Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves

Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. Together with Several of the Most Elegant Plants. Engraved and Coloured from the subjects themselves

London: T. Bensley for Benjamin and John White and John Sewell, 1796 [Plates watermarked Whatman and W. Balston 1814]. Folio. (21 x 14 3/8 inches). With 60 hand-colored etched plates by and after Miller, including 41 plates of birds, many printed in sepia.

Half calf, 19th century cloth marble endpapers

First edition with the text by George Shaw, second edition overall.

The quadrupeds represented, ranging in size from the Moose to the Jerboaare, are outnumbered by the rare and curious birds, usually shown next to a carefully chosen plant. Among the parrots, Loxia and Oriols is Psittacus Melanocephalus, said by Shaw to be of a peculiarly stubborn and obstinate nature; tamed with great difficulty and very quarrelsome. Other rarities include the flightless Cassowary; Columba coronata the largest and most magnificent of the Doves; the Antarctic Falcon; Vultur Secretarius or the Secretary Bird with its remrkable crest; a South American kingfisher never before described; the violet-black Hoopoe one of the rarest of its genus as well as one of the most beautiful; and an Indian Toucan.

Fine Bird Books p. 94; Nissen IVB 638; Stafleu and Cowan TL2 6033; Wood p. 465; Zimmer p. 585.

Item #41995

Price: $12,500.00