Details
LEAR, Edward (1812-1888). Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured. London: E. Lear, [1830-] 1832.
Large 2° (543 x 356mm). Letterpress title, dedication, list of subscribers, list of plates, 42 FINE HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES by and after Lear. (Several leaves spotted, mostly extremely lightly, two or three more heavily, particularly the last.) Contemporary red half morocco gilt, over marbled boards, the spine in seven compartments with raised bands, olive-green morocco lettering-piece onlaid in one, the others decorated with various small tools, g.e. (extremities a little rubbed, lower corners bumped).
FIRST EDITION of Lear's first work, and the first English ornithological work published in folio format with lithographic plates. It is also the first English illustrated monograph on a single species of bird, and the only separate work on birds published by Lear, most of whose natural-history work was done for John Gould. Lear later described his book as "one which led to all Mr. Gould's improvements". It was originally intended to be issued in fourteen parts, but due to lack of finance, publication ceased after the twelfth and Gould bought all the remaining stock. It is a rare work: only 175 copies were printed and Lear destroyed the lithographic stones after the parts were published, in order to protect his 125 subscribers.
Lear began work at the age of eighteen and carefully supervised every step of the publication. He made many of his original sketches from the live specimens at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens, and then prepared numerous preliminary lithographs. Many of these appear not to have satisfied him, for they were never published. The plates were printed by C. Hullmandel. Christine Jackson describes Lear's painstaking approach to his work: "Lear worked in great detail, outlining every feather and filling in the details with fine lines. This scientific accuracy exetended to every part of the bird, from the beak to the claws. He noted on the plate the scale of the bird as shown in relation to its life-size, whenever he had reduced it. . . . The colouring was done with opaque watercolours with touches of egg-white for parts of the feathers requiring sheen, and for the eye, to add that 'life-touch'." (Bird Illustrators: Some Artists in Early Lithography, London: 1975). The result combines "the most exacting scientific naturalism with a masterly sense of design and intuitive sympathy for animal intelligence" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds, London: 1980).
Nissen IVB 536; Anker 283; Zimmer pp.380-1; Fine Bird Books 87; Wood 429; Ray The Illustrator and the Book 90; V. Noakes Edward Lear 1812-1888, London: 1985, no.9c, p.83.
Large 2° (543 x 356mm). Letterpress title, dedication, list of subscribers, list of plates, 42 FINE HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES by and after Lear. (Several leaves spotted, mostly extremely lightly, two or three more heavily, particularly the last.) Contemporary red half morocco gilt, over marbled boards, the spine in seven compartments with raised bands, olive-green morocco lettering-piece onlaid in one, the others decorated with various small tools, g.e. (extremities a little rubbed, lower corners bumped).
FIRST EDITION of Lear's first work, and the first English ornithological work published in folio format with lithographic plates. It is also the first English illustrated monograph on a single species of bird, and the only separate work on birds published by Lear, most of whose natural-history work was done for John Gould. Lear later described his book as "one which led to all Mr. Gould's improvements". It was originally intended to be issued in fourteen parts, but due to lack of finance, publication ceased after the twelfth and Gould bought all the remaining stock. It is a rare work: only 175 copies were printed and Lear destroyed the lithographic stones after the parts were published, in order to protect his 125 subscribers.
Lear began work at the age of eighteen and carefully supervised every step of the publication. He made many of his original sketches from the live specimens at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens, and then prepared numerous preliminary lithographs. Many of these appear not to have satisfied him, for they were never published. The plates were printed by C. Hullmandel. Christine Jackson describes Lear's painstaking approach to his work: "Lear worked in great detail, outlining every feather and filling in the details with fine lines. This scientific accuracy exetended to every part of the bird, from the beak to the claws. He noted on the plate the scale of the bird as shown in relation to its life-size, whenever he had reduced it. . . . The colouring was done with opaque watercolours with touches of egg-white for parts of the feathers requiring sheen, and for the eye, to add that 'life-touch'." (Bird Illustrators: Some Artists in Early Lithography, London: 1975). The result combines "the most exacting scientific naturalism with a masterly sense of design and intuitive sympathy for animal intelligence" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds, London: 1980).
Nissen IVB 536; Anker 283; Zimmer pp.380-1; Fine Bird Books 87; Wood 429; Ray The Illustrator and the Book 90; V. Noakes Edward Lear 1812-1888, London: 1985, no.9c, p.83.