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Details
BUFFON, George-Louis-Marie Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788). Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1770-1786.
10 volumes, large 4° in half sheets (304 x 230mm). 973 fine hand-coloured plates drawn and engraved by François Nicolas Martinet under the supervision of Edmé Louis Daubenton, many on blue-toned paper. (Without the 35 non-ornithological plates, vol. IV with stab mark through back cover and into leaves back to 5D1, affecting two plates, vol. VIII with plate 756 loosely inserted, vol. IX with tear to upper blank margin of 3P1, occasional dust-soiling at upper margins.) Contemporary English red straight-grained morocco gilt, covers with border of one thick and two narrow fillets, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and third, the bands outlined with gilt rules, turn-ins with metope and pentaglyph roll, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (some discolouration to spines, light scuffing to extremities, corners bumped).
A FINE COPY OF THIS GREAT LANDMARK IN THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY. This issue is described by Ronsil as 'Petit in-folio avec les planches enluminées, petit papier,' and the work is undoubtedly 'one of the most important of all bird books from the collector's point of view' (Sitwell). In 1765 Daubenton the younger, at Buffon's instigation, commenced the publication of the plates. By 1780 or a little later, 42 cahiers (with 1008 plates) had appeared, in no particular order, and without text. The evident intention was that the plates should illustrate the ornithological volumes of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle générale et particulière (4°, 44 vols., 1749-1804); this proved impossible because of the limited quantity of the coloured plates. A new set of 262 plain plates was prepared for the nine ornithological volumes of the Natural History, and Buffon simultaneously produced, in ten volumes, the above special edition (in four distinct formats) using Martinet's plates and essentially the same text as appeared in the Natural History, Philibert Gueneau de Montbeillard and l'Abbé Bexon assisting him with the text.
The stated collations of this work vary and none of the standard references agree on an ideal copy. The plate-list calls for 973 plates; the non-ornithological plates are not required, but would seem to be necessary in a perfect copy; however, the two previous copies of this issue to appear at auction were both without the extra 35 plates. Anker 76; Fine Bird Books 63; Mengel 411; Nissen IVB 158; Ronsil p. 76; Zimmer 104. (10)
10 volumes, large 4° in half sheets (304 x 230mm). 973 fine hand-coloured plates drawn and engraved by François Nicolas Martinet under the supervision of Edmé Louis Daubenton, many on blue-toned paper. (Without the 35 non-ornithological plates, vol. IV with stab mark through back cover and into leaves back to 5D1, affecting two plates, vol. VIII with plate 756 loosely inserted, vol. IX with tear to upper blank margin of 3P1, occasional dust-soiling at upper margins.) Contemporary English red straight-grained morocco gilt, covers with border of one thick and two narrow fillets, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and third, the bands outlined with gilt rules, turn-ins with metope and pentaglyph roll, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (some discolouration to spines, light scuffing to extremities, corners bumped).
A FINE COPY OF THIS GREAT LANDMARK IN THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY. This issue is described by Ronsil as 'Petit in-folio avec les planches enluminées, petit papier,' and the work is undoubtedly 'one of the most important of all bird books from the collector's point of view' (Sitwell). In 1765 Daubenton the younger, at Buffon's instigation, commenced the publication of the plates. By 1780 or a little later, 42 cahiers (with 1008 plates) had appeared, in no particular order, and without text. The evident intention was that the plates should illustrate the ornithological volumes of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle générale et particulière (4°, 44 vols., 1749-1804); this proved impossible because of the limited quantity of the coloured plates. A new set of 262 plain plates was prepared for the nine ornithological volumes of the Natural History, and Buffon simultaneously produced, in ten volumes, the above special edition (in four distinct formats) using Martinet's plates and essentially the same text as appeared in the Natural History, Philibert Gueneau de Montbeillard and l'Abbé Bexon assisting him with the text.
The stated collations of this work vary and none of the standard references agree on an ideal copy. The plate-list calls for 973 plates; the non-ornithological plates are not required, but would seem to be necessary in a perfect copy; however, the two previous copies of this issue to appear at auction were both without the extra 35 plates. Anker 76; Fine Bird Books 63; Mengel 411; Nissen IVB 158; Ronsil p. 76; Zimmer 104. (10)
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