OTHER PROPERTIES
BROWN, Captain Thomas (1785-1862). Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano. With the Addition of Numerous Recently Discovered Species and Representations of the Whole Sylva of North America. Edinburgh: Frazer & Co.; Dublin: William Curry Jnr. & Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., [1831]-1835.
Details
BROWN, Captain Thomas (1785-1862). Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano. With the Addition of Numerous Recently Discovered Species and Representations of the Whole Sylva of North America. Edinburgh: Frazer & Co.; Dublin: William Curry Jnr. & Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., [1831]-1835.
2° (533 x 410mm). Engraved title by James Turvey, engraved dedication to David, Earl of Airlie, and 124 finely hand-coloured engraved plates of 520 birds after Thomas Brown and A. Rider (one) engraved by J. Turvey, S. Milne, R. Scott, W.H. Lizars, and others; 3-page letterpress index. (Some light offsetting, some light spotting, mostly marginal, one small marginal tear.) Contemporary green embossed cloth with modern green morocco back, t.e.g., (edges slightly scuffed and corners repaired). Provenance: Duke of Sutherland (armorial stamp on front cover; sale Sotheby's, 19 Nov. 1906, lot 263).
A LARGE AND FINE COPY OF THIS EXCEPTIONALLY RARE WORK, ONE OF ONLY 8 COMPLETE COPIES KNOWN. This is an early issue, with plates XLIV and LXI before the addition of some figures, and plate numbers without corrective slips. "Among the rarest in ornithological literature" (Faxon 1919), Brown's Illustrations was intended to accompany the first European edition of Wilson's American Ornithology published in 1831 at Edinburgh, and it contains 161 birds not depicted by Wilson and Bonaparte and a further 87 "considerably enlarged". The plates are the work of the leading engravers of Edinburgh, including W.H. Lizars, who also engraved some of the earliest Audubon plates. Faxon surmised that the work must have been published in small numbers because of the rarity of surviving copies, and he was able to locate only 7 complete copies; at that time he was unable to locate the present copy, sold in the Sutherland sale in 1906. According to Faxon and all later bibliographies (which depend on Faxon), the total number of bird figures is 523, with one figure sometimes not yet added to plate 44, and 2 figures not added to plate 61. The number is actually 524, with 10 figures in plate 61. In the early issues there are seven figures in plate 61, as here, and the work contains a total of 520 birds. W. Faxon The Auk 20, 1903, pp.236-41 and 36, 1919, p.626; Nissen IVB, 152; Fine Bird Books p.62; Lysaght, The Book of Birds, 88; Mengel 389.
2° (533 x 410mm). Engraved title by James Turvey, engraved dedication to David, Earl of Airlie, and 124 finely hand-coloured engraved plates of 520 birds after Thomas Brown and A. Rider (one) engraved by J. Turvey, S. Milne, R. Scott, W.H. Lizars, and others; 3-page letterpress index. (Some light offsetting, some light spotting, mostly marginal, one small marginal tear.) Contemporary green embossed cloth with modern green morocco back, t.e.g., (edges slightly scuffed and corners repaired). Provenance: Duke of Sutherland (armorial stamp on front cover; sale Sotheby's, 19 Nov. 1906, lot 263).
A LARGE AND FINE COPY OF THIS EXCEPTIONALLY RARE WORK, ONE OF ONLY 8 COMPLETE COPIES KNOWN. This is an early issue, with plates XLIV and LXI before the addition of some figures, and plate numbers without corrective slips. "Among the rarest in ornithological literature" (Faxon 1919), Brown's Illustrations was intended to accompany the first European edition of Wilson's American Ornithology published in 1831 at Edinburgh, and it contains 161 birds not depicted by Wilson and Bonaparte and a further 87 "considerably enlarged". The plates are the work of the leading engravers of Edinburgh, including W.H. Lizars, who also engraved some of the earliest Audubon plates. Faxon surmised that the work must have been published in small numbers because of the rarity of surviving copies, and he was able to locate only 7 complete copies; at that time he was unable to locate the present copy, sold in the Sutherland sale in 1906. According to Faxon and all later bibliographies (which depend on Faxon), the total number of bird figures is 523, with one figure sometimes not yet added to plate 44, and 2 figures not added to plate 61. The number is actually 524, with 10 figures in plate 61. In the early issues there are seven figures in plate 61, as here, and the work contains a total of 520 birds. W. Faxon The Auk 20, 1903, pp.236-41 and 36, 1919, p.626; Nissen IVB, 152; Fine Bird Books p.62; Lysaght, The Book of Birds, 88; Mengel 389.