AUDEBERT, Jean-Baptiste (1759-1800)

Histoire Naturelle des Singes et des Makis

Paris: Chez l'Auteur & H. J. Jansen, 1797-[1800]. Folio. (19 7/8 x 13 inches). 63 plates (61 colour-printed plates by and after Audebert, printed in colours by Finot and finished by hand, 2 uncoloured anatomical plates).

Contemporary long-grain red morocco, wide floral rolls in gilt frames on boards, special tools representing monkeys at the corners, smooth spine lettered gilt, compartments decorated with the same special tools, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt. Bound by Bozerian and signed at the base of the spine

A fine copy, in a beautiful contemporary red morocco binding by Bozerian, of Audebert’s celebrated work on monkeys and lemurs, one of the most accomplished colour-printed natural history books of the late eighteenth century.

Audebert's Histoire naturelle des singes et des makis is his principal independent publication and among the most accomplished zoological books of its time. Published by subscription in parts, it brought together a sequence of vividly observed plates of monkeys and lemurs with accompanying descriptive text. Audebert, trained as a painter, turned to natural history illustration in the 1790s, and the present work was the only one of his own major works completed during his lifetime. The work is especially notable for its printing. Audebert employed a new colour-printing method in which all the colours were printed from a single plate, substituting oil-based colour for the gouache more commonly used in finished natural history illustration. Contemporary and later descriptions alike single out the unusual brilliance and depth of the results, which allowed the plates to retain both precision and luminosity. In this respect the book stands at an important moment in the development of French colour printing, anticipating the technical refinement later associated with the great natural history flower books of the early nineteenth century. Audebert's plates are notable for their animation and immediacy, often conveying facial expression, posture, and movement with unusual liveliness. The combination of close observation and experimental colour printing gives the work its distinctive place among late-eighteenth century natural history books.

Brunet I, 550; Nissen ZBI 156; Perrault McIlhenny Collection 620; Wood, p. 206.

Item #42722

Price: $25,000.00