Details
BOLTON, James. Harmonia Ruralis; or, an Essay towards a Natural History of British Song Birds. Stannary, near Halifax: for the author, 1794-1796.
2 parts in one volume, 4° (342 x 240mm.). Hand-coloured etched frontispiece and 80 hand-coloured etched plates, by Bolton. Contemporary green half morocco, (rebacked, old spine laid down). Provenance: Thomas Adam (armorial bookplate); Kathleen Adam (presentation inscription from her father, dated 1917).
A FINE LARGE COPY of the first edition, coloured issue, of the chief ornithological work by the 'Yorkshire Gilbert White'. The occasional pencil annotations in this copy are said to be by the author himself, who was a close friend of the Adams family. (A typescript slip loosely inserted in the book gives further details of the family's history.)
The book elaborates on Eleazar Albin's The Natural History of English Song Birds (1737), which focussed mainly on how to catch and train singing birds suitable to be kept in cages. Bolton's work is based on his observations of the birds in their natural habitats, as well as detailed inspection of the individual birds he drew. According to Coues, "This is perhaps the most ornate, or luxurious, work on British Song Birds of the last [i.e. 18th] century, and it ought to remain in some sort a 'standard' treatise." Nissen IVB115; Ellis/Mengel 308 ("said to be rather rare"); Fine Bird Books p.60.
2 parts in one volume, 4° (342 x 240mm.). Hand-coloured etched frontispiece and 80 hand-coloured etched plates, by Bolton. Contemporary green half morocco, (rebacked, old spine laid down). Provenance: Thomas Adam (armorial bookplate); Kathleen Adam (presentation inscription from her father, dated 1917).
A FINE LARGE COPY of the first edition, coloured issue, of the chief ornithological work by the 'Yorkshire Gilbert White'. The occasional pencil annotations in this copy are said to be by the author himself, who was a close friend of the Adams family. (A typescript slip loosely inserted in the book gives further details of the family's history.)
The book elaborates on Eleazar Albin's The Natural History of English Song Birds (1737), which focussed mainly on how to catch and train singing birds suitable to be kept in cages. Bolton's work is based on his observations of the birds in their natural habitats, as well as detailed inspection of the individual birds he drew. According to Coues, "This is perhaps the most ornate, or luxurious, work on British Song Birds of the last [i.e. 18th] century, and it ought to remain in some sort a 'standard' treatise." Nissen IVB115; Ellis/Mengel 308 ("said to be rather rare"); Fine Bird Books p.60.