.jpg?w=1)
Details
François Levaillant (1753-1824)
Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux d'Afrique. Paris: H. Perronneau for Delachaussée, [1796-]1805-1808. 6 volumes, large 2° (534 x 348mm). 300 FINE ETCHED PLATES, EACH IN TWO STATES, both printed in colour and finished by hand and uncoloured, by C.M. Fessard and J.L. Perée after J.L. Reinold. UNCUT. (Appreciable spotting or offsetting to about 104 plates, title to vol.I and blank margins to plates 173 and 174 creased, light dampstaining to vol.I and VI.) Publisher's red straight-grained half morocco gilt, the flat spine divided into seven compartments by horizontal gilt rolls, lettered in the second, numbered in the fourth, the others with a selection of large centrally-placed single tools of various birds (extremities lightly scuffed).
A FINE UNSOPHISTICATED COPY OF THE DELUXE ISSUE OF THE FIRST EDITION of "by far the most important ornithological work on Africa published up to this period" (Mendelssohn). The work was published in both 4° and 2° formats in 51 parts, the printing directed initially by J.B. Audebert and continued by Langlois. Levaillant was the son of the French consul to Dutch Guiana, and through him acquired a love of travel; his interest in natural history began at an early age, and in 1779 he set off on his first trip to southern Africa, arriving in Cape Town in March 1781. He completed his first six-month trip of the Veldt the following year, and began a second trip in 1783 travelling north up the Orange River. On his return to France he was imprisoned by the revolutionaries, but survived and returned to his estate of La Noue in Champagne, where he wrote about the exotic fauna that he loved. Anker 298; Fine Bird Books 90; Mendelssohn I, 892; Nissen IVB 555; cf. Zimmer 391. (6)
Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux d'Afrique. Paris: H. Perronneau for Delachaussée, [1796-]1805-1808. 6 volumes, large 2° (534 x 348mm). 300 FINE ETCHED PLATES, EACH IN TWO STATES, both printed in colour and finished by hand and uncoloured, by C.M. Fessard and J.L. Perée after J.L. Reinold. UNCUT. (Appreciable spotting or offsetting to about 104 plates, title to vol.I and blank margins to plates 173 and 174 creased, light dampstaining to vol.I and VI.) Publisher's red straight-grained half morocco gilt, the flat spine divided into seven compartments by horizontal gilt rolls, lettered in the second, numbered in the fourth, the others with a selection of large centrally-placed single tools of various birds (extremities lightly scuffed).
A FINE UNSOPHISTICATED COPY OF THE DELUXE ISSUE OF THE FIRST EDITION of "by far the most important ornithological work on Africa published up to this period" (Mendelssohn). The work was published in both 4° and 2° formats in 51 parts, the printing directed initially by J.B. Audebert and continued by Langlois. Levaillant was the son of the French consul to Dutch Guiana, and through him acquired a love of travel; his interest in natural history began at an early age, and in 1779 he set off on his first trip to southern Africa, arriving in Cape Town in March 1781. He completed his first six-month trip of the Veldt the following year, and began a second trip in 1783 travelling north up the Orange River. On his return to France he was imprisoned by the revolutionaries, but survived and returned to his estate of La Noue in Champagne, where he wrote about the exotic fauna that he loved. Anker 298; Fine Bird Books 90; Mendelssohn I, 892; Nissen IVB 555; cf. Zimmer 391. (6)
Special notice
This lot will not be subject to VAT either on the hammer price or the buyer's premium.