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ROUX, Jean Louis Florent Polydore (1792-1833). Ornithologie provenale, ou description avec figures colories de tous les oiseaux qui habitent constamment la Provence ou qui n'y sont que de passage. Paris: Levrault & Marseilles, chez l'auteur, 1825-1830.
2 volumes, 4 (266 x 209mm). 449 hand-coloured lithographic plates by Beisson after Roux, comprising 398 plates of birds (one uncoloured), 33 of eggs and 18 of nests, with half-title in each volume. (Occasional light browning and spotting.) 19th-century French green half morocco, spines gilt in compartments with raised bands and repeated tool of a bird amidst foliage, t.e.g. Provenance: Frederick du Cane Godman (bookplate); J. F. Symons-Jeune (bookplate).
FINE COPY WITH A DISTINGUISHED PROVENANCE OF THIS RARE WORK by Polydore Roux who occupied the official post of 'Conservateur du Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle de la ville de Marseille'. Publication was planned in 60 parts, but only 56 parts appeared and the text notoriously ends in mid-sentence on page 48 of volume II. Anker, Nissen and Ronsil call for 451 plates, while Sitwell and Wood call for 425 plates. The Bradley Martin copy had 437 plates, and the Richard Howard copy, 421 plates. While these variations in the plate count no doubt reflect irregularities of issue, this copy is nevertheless the most complete of the three copies to come to auction in recent years. Loosely inserted in one volume is a lithographic circular letter from Roux, dated 1st June 1825, raising subscriptions, several receipts for parts of the work, and a 44-page biographical pamphlet by P. M. Roux, Eloge historique de Polydore Roux (Marseilles, 1834), in original yellow wrappers. This gives an account of the genesis of the work on pp. 19-21, and also implies that it was left incomplete owing to the taste for foreign travel which the author inexplicably developed in his final years. Anker 431; Fine Bird Books p. 103; Nissen IVB 797; Ronsil 2654; Wood p. 543 'essential to a thorough study of the avifauna of Southern France'. (2)
2 volumes, 4 (266 x 209mm). 449 hand-coloured lithographic plates by Beisson after Roux, comprising 398 plates of birds (one uncoloured), 33 of eggs and 18 of nests, with half-title in each volume. (Occasional light browning and spotting.) 19th-century French green half morocco, spines gilt in compartments with raised bands and repeated tool of a bird amidst foliage, t.e.g. Provenance: Frederick du Cane Godman (bookplate); J. F. Symons-Jeune (bookplate).
FINE COPY WITH A DISTINGUISHED PROVENANCE OF THIS RARE WORK by Polydore Roux who occupied the official post of 'Conservateur du Cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle de la ville de Marseille'. Publication was planned in 60 parts, but only 56 parts appeared and the text notoriously ends in mid-sentence on page 48 of volume II. Anker, Nissen and Ronsil call for 451 plates, while Sitwell and Wood call for 425 plates. The Bradley Martin copy had 437 plates, and the Richard Howard copy, 421 plates. While these variations in the plate count no doubt reflect irregularities of issue, this copy is nevertheless the most complete of the three copies to come to auction in recent years. Loosely inserted in one volume is a lithographic circular letter from Roux, dated 1st June 1825, raising subscriptions, several receipts for parts of the work, and a 44-page biographical pamphlet by P. M. Roux, Eloge historique de Polydore Roux (Marseilles, 1834), in original yellow wrappers. This gives an account of the genesis of the work on pp. 19-21, and also implies that it was left incomplete owing to the taste for foreign travel which the author inexplicably developed in his final years. Anker 431; Fine Bird Books p. 103; Nissen IVB 797; Ronsil 2654; Wood p. 543 'essential to a thorough study of the avifauna of Southern France'. (2)