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THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton (1752-1797). Zweyter Beytrag zur Naturgeschichte der vierfüssigen Thiere. Vienna: printed by the Widow of Ignaz Alberti, 1795.
Details
SPALOWSKY, Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton (1752-1797). Zweyter Beytrag zur Naturgeschichte der vierfüssigen Thiere. Vienna: printed by the Widow of Ignaz Alberti, 1795.
Volume 2 (only), 4° (264 x 202 mm). Letterpress title, dedication to Karl Theodor II Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria and his wife Maria Leopoldina facing full-page engraved plates of their arms, hand-colored and gilt, 4-page address by the author, preface and contents leaf, 32 pages of explanatory text, 49 engraved plates in part by S.Tzetter B. Piringer, ALL COLORED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND, Latin-German caption identification written in red. (Mostly marginal light spotting and staining.) Contemporary green calf over pasteboard with gilt-stamped border and large central oval of paper painted with the arms of Karl Theodor and Maria Leopoldina (some rubbing and light wear to spineends). Provenance: Karl Theodor II Prince-Elector (1724-1799), Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria his wife Maria Leopoldina (1776-1848), (arms on binding); Frey-Ruegg, Aarau (inscription on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION, A DEDICATION COPY, one of two known dedication copies, the other at the Bavarian State Library, see below. Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton Spalowsky is known as the official physician to the “Bürgerliches Regiment” of Vienna and the author of other books on natural history, all of which are scarce. He has been described as “a veritable polymath” (Kabat) on account of his diverse publications ranging from poisonous plants, mammals, conchology, and birds through to economics and numismatics. The present work is unrecorded in all bibliographies, and even Meusel (Lexicon der Teutschen Schriftsteller) writing in 1812 did not list this work among Spalowsky's publications. In his preface Spalowsky sets out his intention to produce a whole natural history illustrating accurately all animals from the three orders which are either not commonly known or are usually misrepresented. Their accurate depiction is one of his chief goals, and to this end he states that he will illustrate them in living color, so as not to disappoint either artist or purchaser. In this grandiose endeavour, Spalowsky humbly requests the patronage Karl Theodor II and Maria Leopoldina. It may be that the ambitious 10-volume Naturgeschichte der vierfüssigen Thiere, Vögel, Amphibien und Conchylien, nebst Abhandlungen der ökonomischen Wissenschaft, dann der Numismatik (Vienna, n.d.) which is recorded only in Graesse (VI:457) was the realization of Spalowsky's proposal. Christie’s sold a copy of the first “Beytrag” dedicated to Franz II and Maria Theresia bound in green silk (Christie’s London, 30 April 1997, lot 61). Similar bindings on works of Spalowsky including another copy of the above with different arms for Maria Leopoldina are in the Bavarian State Library. RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, no copy of this volume has sold in the past 35 years and only one copy of the first volume sold in 1997. See Alan R Kabat “J.J.N.A. Spalowsky (1752-97) and the Prodromus in Systema Historicum Testaceorum (1795)” in Archives of Natural History (1996) 23 (2): 245-54.
Volume 2 (only), 4° (264 x 202 mm). Letterpress title, dedication to Karl Theodor II Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria and his wife Maria Leopoldina facing full-page engraved plates of their arms, hand-colored and gilt, 4-page address by the author, preface and contents leaf, 32 pages of explanatory text, 49 engraved plates in part by S.Tzetter B. Piringer, ALL COLORED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND, Latin-German caption identification written in red. (Mostly marginal light spotting and staining.) Contemporary green calf over pasteboard with gilt-stamped border and large central oval of paper painted with the arms of Karl Theodor and Maria Leopoldina (some rubbing and light wear to spineends). Provenance: Karl Theodor II Prince-Elector (1724-1799), Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria his wife Maria Leopoldina (1776-1848), (arms on binding); Frey-Ruegg, Aarau (inscription on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION, A DEDICATION COPY, one of two known dedication copies, the other at the Bavarian State Library, see below. Joachim Johann Nepomuk Anton Spalowsky is known as the official physician to the “Bürgerliches Regiment” of Vienna and the author of other books on natural history, all of which are scarce. He has been described as “a veritable polymath” (Kabat) on account of his diverse publications ranging from poisonous plants, mammals, conchology, and birds through to economics and numismatics. The present work is unrecorded in all bibliographies, and even Meusel (Lexicon der Teutschen Schriftsteller) writing in 1812 did not list this work among Spalowsky's publications. In his preface Spalowsky sets out his intention to produce a whole natural history illustrating accurately all animals from the three orders which are either not commonly known or are usually misrepresented. Their accurate depiction is one of his chief goals, and to this end he states that he will illustrate them in living color, so as not to disappoint either artist or purchaser. In this grandiose endeavour, Spalowsky humbly requests the patronage Karl Theodor II and Maria Leopoldina. It may be that the ambitious 10-volume Naturgeschichte der vierfüssigen Thiere, Vögel, Amphibien und Conchylien, nebst Abhandlungen der ökonomischen Wissenschaft, dann der Numismatik (Vienna, n.d.) which is recorded only in Graesse (VI:457) was the realization of Spalowsky's proposal. Christie’s sold a copy of the first “Beytrag” dedicated to Franz II and Maria Theresia bound in green silk (Christie’s London, 30 April 1997, lot 61). Similar bindings on works of Spalowsky including another copy of the above with different arms for Maria Leopoldina are in the Bavarian State Library. RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, no copy of this volume has sold in the past 35 years and only one copy of the first volume sold in 1997. See Alan R Kabat “J.J.N.A. Spalowsky (1752-97) and the Prodromus in Systema Historicum Testaceorum (1795)” in Archives of Natural History (1996) 23 (2): 245-54.