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Details
William Lewin (1747-1795)
The Birds of Great Britain, with their eggs, accurately figured. London: for the author, sold by Leigh and Sotheby, 1789-1794. 7 volumes, large 4° (335 x 258mm). 322 Original body-colour paintings by Lewin, occasionally heightened with gum-arabic, 270 of birds, 52 of their eggs. (23 plates in vol. I with stamps erased from lower margins, light soiling to plate number 73, slight discolouration to plates 123, 125, 202, slight offsetting of text onto plates in vols. VI and VII.) Contemporary English red straight-grained morocco gilt, covers with outer triple fillet border with inner anthemion roll, spine gilt in seven compartments with double-raised bands, titled in the second compartment, volumes numbered in the third, bands outlined in gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (light scuffing to extremities).
A HANDSOME COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE RAREST OF ALL BIRD BOOKS. The whole edition is traditionally limited to 60 (or 66?) sets and is Lewin's masterpiece. The deleted stamps in volume I and the consistently high quality of the paintings would seem to indicate that this is one of the earlier sets to be completed (Lewin's enthusiam for the project appears to have waned towards the end of this mammoth project which involved the production of over 19,000 paintings.) Lewin was born in Stepney, London and in his mid-twenties he seems to have been making his living as a designer of textile patterns, by his mid-thirties he was describing himself as a "painter". In the early or mid-1780s Lewin painted a few copies of the watercolour catalogue of the dowager Duchess of Portland's collection of birds' eggs, but his main work, to which he devoted the last six years of his life was The Birds of Great Britain. Fine Bird Books p.91; Lowndes II, p.1351; Mullens & Swann pp.349-351; Nissen IVB 562. (7)
The Birds of Great Britain, with their eggs, accurately figured. London: for the author, sold by Leigh and Sotheby, 1789-1794. 7 volumes, large 4° (335 x 258mm). 322 Original body-colour paintings by Lewin, occasionally heightened with gum-arabic, 270 of birds, 52 of their eggs. (23 plates in vol. I with stamps erased from lower margins, light soiling to plate number 73, slight discolouration to plates 123, 125, 202, slight offsetting of text onto plates in vols. VI and VII.) Contemporary English red straight-grained morocco gilt, covers with outer triple fillet border with inner anthemion roll, spine gilt in seven compartments with double-raised bands, titled in the second compartment, volumes numbered in the third, bands outlined in gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges (light scuffing to extremities).
A HANDSOME COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE RAREST OF ALL BIRD BOOKS. The whole edition is traditionally limited to 60 (or 66?) sets and is Lewin's masterpiece. The deleted stamps in volume I and the consistently high quality of the paintings would seem to indicate that this is one of the earlier sets to be completed (Lewin's enthusiam for the project appears to have waned towards the end of this mammoth project which involved the production of over 19,000 paintings.) Lewin was born in Stepney, London and in his mid-twenties he seems to have been making his living as a designer of textile patterns, by his mid-thirties he was describing himself as a "painter". In the early or mid-1780s Lewin painted a few copies of the watercolour catalogue of the dowager Duchess of Portland's collection of birds' eggs, but his main work, to which he devoted the last six years of his life was The Birds of Great Britain. Fine Bird Books p.91; Lowndes II, p.1351; Mullens & Swann pp.349-351; Nissen IVB 562. (7)
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