Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, with the Addition of Numerous Recently Discovered Species and Representations of the Whole Sylva of North America. Edinburgh: Frazer & Co.; Dublin: William Curry Jnr & Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Brown, Captain Thomas

Edité par 1831- 1835, 1831

A propos de cet article

Broadsheets. 3 pp letterpress index, engraved title by James Turvey, engraved dedication to David, Earl of Airlie, 124 finely hand-colored engraved plates after Thomas Brown, A. Rider, J. B. Kidd, and others, engraved by Samuel Milne, James Mayson, Wm. Davie, R. Scott, W. H. Lizars, and others, 69 of the plates with slips correcting the numbering pasted onto the upper right corner of the plate area; title-page with expertly repaired vertical crease, small tears, not affecting images, to lower blank margins of plates numbered V, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXII, and LXXXIX, occasional light spotting or browning to plates I, LVIII, LXIX, LXII, and LXXXIV.20th-century red morocco, spine lettered and dated in gilt; upper cover sunned.First edition. A fine copy of one of the scarcest color-plate books on American ornithology. Brownâ s plates were evidently issued to accompany the first European edition of Wilson and Bonaparteâ s American Ornithology, which was published without illustration in Edinburgh in 1831 as part of Constableâ s Miscellany. Two other editions of Wilson and Bonaparteâ s pioneering work were also in production at virtually the same time, and the competition they providedâ "coupled with the success of Audubonâ s revolutionary Birds of Americaâ "probably contributed to the rarity of Brownâ s work. Faxon was able to locate just seven complete and six imperfect copies of it. While the title of Brownâ s illustrations refers only to the works of Wilson and Bonaparte, some of the more than 500 figures it depicts are also based on the ornithologies of Audubon, Selby, Jardine, Richardson, and Swainson. According to the index, Brown added 161 birds to those covered by Wilson and Bonaparte, with a further 87 being â considerably enlarged.â Representations of 167 trees and shrubs are also included, all of which are identified in the index. The cancel page numbers were necessitated by the abandonment of the original numbering scheme and because sixteen plates were purposely unnumbered. Brown published these plates separately without numbers in 1834 as illustrations of the Game Birds of North America; the strikes of the game bird plates intended for inclusion in the present work were subsequently numbered with overslips. Upon learning in October 1830 of the three pending English versions of Wilson and Bonaparteâ s Ornithology, Audubon noted in his journal that â Wilson has had his day â ¦ and now it is my time.â While The Birds of America did overwhelm its earlier rivals, Brownâ s Illustrations is still recognized as an important and desirable work in its own right . As specimens of the engraverâ s art these plates exemplify the best work of the leading engravers of Edinburgh, including W. H. Lizars, who engraved the earliest of Audubonâ s plates and some of Selbyâ s.Provenance: Quentin Keynes (his sale, Christies London, 8 April 2004, lot 528)References: Ellis/Mengel 389; Faxon â Correspondence: in The Auk 20:236-41, 36:623=26; Fine Bird Books 62; Lysaght The Book of Birds 88; ftMcGill/Wood 264; Nissen IVB 152, Not in Anker, Ayer/Zimmer.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, with the Addition of Numerous Recently Discovered Species and Representations of the Whole Sylva of North America. Edinburgh: Frazer & Co.; Dublin: William Curry Jnr & Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Éditeur: 1831- 1835
• Date de parution: 1831
• Langue: anglais
• Reliure: Couverture souple
• Édition: Edition originale
• État de l'article: Very good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Americanas