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Details
ALFRED MALHERBE
Monographie de Picides ou histoire naturelle des Picids, Picumins, Yuncins ou Torcols. Metz: Jules Verronnais, [1859]-]1861-62-61-62. 4 volumes (including plate volumes), 2 (536 x 345mm). Limitation leaf in each volume. 123 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by C.Delahaye, A. Mesnel and P.Oudart under the direction of Malherbe, printed by A.Compan or Becquet frres, illustrations, (Occasional light soiling to blank margins of plates, text margins a trifle browned.) Contemporary red half morocco gilt, g.e. (neat repairs to joints, corners and head and foot of spines, some old damage to cloth covers).
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED TO BETWEEN 80 AND 100 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR IN EACH VOLUME, this set variously numbered. Malherbe began gathering material for this work as early as 1838, and had announced his intentions by 1844. Publication did not begin umtil 1859, 25 parts were issued, with life-size illustrations of both sexes of the 140 species new to science, and reduced illustrations of all the other known species. Anker 321; Fine Bird Books p.92; Nissen IVB 587; Ronsil p.1883; Wood p.449; Zimmer II, 415.
[With:]
C. DELAHAYE, A. MESNEL and Paul Louis OUDART (artists). Original watercolour drawings for Monographie de Picides.... [circa 1838-1855]. A collection of 72 drawings in watercolour, bodycolour, and pencil sketching, about 20 signed or initialled by Delahaye or Mesnel, most annotated in pen or pencil and initialled by Malherbe, many with plate numbers in pencil or pen, on paper or thin card, mounted on loose sheets. All within a single modern blue morocco box, modelled as a book, tooled in gilt and blind, spine in six compartments with raised bands, red morooco lettering-pieces in two, the others gilt, by A.Oldach & Son, Holland, Pa. (one or two light scuff marks). Provenance: unidentified collection stamp in blind on a few drawings (medical staff with initials EB, not in Lugt).
A SUPERB COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS PAINTED FOR MALHERBE'S ..PICIDES, OFFERING A RARE INSIGHT INTO THE WORK THAT WENT INTO THE PREPARATION OF THE MONOGRAPH. Malherbe spent over 15 years preparing his work on woodpeckers, visiting ornithological collections throughout Europe and amassing his own collection. By the time of publication he himself owned 700 examples of woodpeckers, representing both female and male, young and old. The drawings were made under Malherbe's direction, with many initialled by him, and presumably were drawn mainly from his collection; several are also identified from the Museum at Leiden, or at Vienna. The birds are usually painted singly in different positions and from different angles, they are identified with Latin name and gender (the identifications of these drawings appear to be written by Malherbe and are often crossed through and corrected), and then they were arranged or altered for reproduction in the finished lithograph. Some of the drawings were further marked up in final preparation of the plates, with caption text lettered as it appeared in the lithograph, including "Impr.lith. de Becquet". Fifty-six of the present collection represent all or part of 39 of the plates, with the 16 remaining drawings not attributed. Interestingly, a few of the watercolours are signed by one artist, while the lithograph is attributed to another: the original drawings of birds on plates 19, 21 and 24, for example, are signed by Delahaye, yet Oudart is named on the lithograph. Presumably when birds by more than one artist appeared on the same plate, the artist responsible for the majority of the figures was the one named. The present collection of drawings shows that collaboration among the three artists was considerably more widespread than the published lithographs suggest, and that Malherbe was actively involved in all aspects of the Picides. All three artists were accomplished bird painters, but Paul Louis Oudart was the most famous. He had studied with Gerard van Spaendonck at the Jardin des Plantes, and not only contributed to a number of important natural history colour-plate books, but also published his own works. Delahaye also worked in the library of the Jardin des Plantes (Benezit III:449), presumably under van Spaendonck. (5)
Monographie de Picides ou histoire naturelle des Picids, Picumins, Yuncins ou Torcols. Metz: Jules Verronnais, [1859]-]1861-62-61-62. 4 volumes (including plate volumes), 2 (536 x 345mm). Limitation leaf in each volume. 123 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by C.Delahaye, A. Mesnel and P.Oudart under the direction of Malherbe, printed by A.Compan or Becquet frres, illustrations, (Occasional light soiling to blank margins of plates, text margins a trifle browned.) Contemporary red half morocco gilt, g.e. (neat repairs to joints, corners and head and foot of spines, some old damage to cloth covers).
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED TO BETWEEN 80 AND 100 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR IN EACH VOLUME, this set variously numbered. Malherbe began gathering material for this work as early as 1838, and had announced his intentions by 1844. Publication did not begin umtil 1859, 25 parts were issued, with life-size illustrations of both sexes of the 140 species new to science, and reduced illustrations of all the other known species. Anker 321; Fine Bird Books p.92; Nissen IVB 587; Ronsil p.1883; Wood p.449; Zimmer II, 415.
[With:]
C. DELAHAYE, A. MESNEL and Paul Louis OUDART (artists). Original watercolour drawings for Monographie de Picides.... [circa 1838-1855]. A collection of 72 drawings in watercolour, bodycolour, and pencil sketching, about 20 signed or initialled by Delahaye or Mesnel, most annotated in pen or pencil and initialled by Malherbe, many with plate numbers in pencil or pen, on paper or thin card, mounted on loose sheets. All within a single modern blue morocco box, modelled as a book, tooled in gilt and blind, spine in six compartments with raised bands, red morooco lettering-pieces in two, the others gilt, by A.Oldach & Son, Holland, Pa. (one or two light scuff marks). Provenance: unidentified collection stamp in blind on a few drawings (medical staff with initials EB, not in Lugt).
A SUPERB COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS PAINTED FOR MALHERBE'S ..PICIDES, OFFERING A RARE INSIGHT INTO THE WORK THAT WENT INTO THE PREPARATION OF THE MONOGRAPH. Malherbe spent over 15 years preparing his work on woodpeckers, visiting ornithological collections throughout Europe and amassing his own collection. By the time of publication he himself owned 700 examples of woodpeckers, representing both female and male, young and old. The drawings were made under Malherbe's direction, with many initialled by him, and presumably were drawn mainly from his collection; several are also identified from the Museum at Leiden, or at Vienna. The birds are usually painted singly in different positions and from different angles, they are identified with Latin name and gender (the identifications of these drawings appear to be written by Malherbe and are often crossed through and corrected), and then they were arranged or altered for reproduction in the finished lithograph. Some of the drawings were further marked up in final preparation of the plates, with caption text lettered as it appeared in the lithograph, including "Impr.lith. de Becquet". Fifty-six of the present collection represent all or part of 39 of the plates, with the 16 remaining drawings not attributed. Interestingly, a few of the watercolours are signed by one artist, while the lithograph is attributed to another: the original drawings of birds on plates 19, 21 and 24, for example, are signed by Delahaye, yet Oudart is named on the lithograph. Presumably when birds by more than one artist appeared on the same plate, the artist responsible for the majority of the figures was the one named. The present collection of drawings shows that collaboration among the three artists was considerably more widespread than the published lithographs suggest, and that Malherbe was actively involved in all aspects of the Picides. All three artists were accomplished bird painters, but Paul Louis Oudart was the most famous. He had studied with Gerard van Spaendonck at the Jardin des Plantes, and not only contributed to a number of important natural history colour-plate books, but also published his own works. Delahaye also worked in the library of the Jardin des Plantes (Benezit III:449), presumably under van Spaendonck. (5)