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Details
SCHLEGEL, Herman (1804-1884) and Abraham Henrik Verster DE WULVERHORST (1796-1882). Traité de Fauconnerie. Leiden and Düsseldorf: Arnz & Comp., 1844-1853.
2° (643 x 470mm). Tinted lithographic title by J.B. Sonderland and 16 plates comprising 2 mounted tinted lithographs by J. Dillman after Sonderland, 12 hand-coloured lithographs of birds of prey by Wendel after J. Wolf with backgrounds after C. Scheuren and G. Saal, and 2 hand-coloured lithographs of hawking equipment by and after Portman and van Wouw, all with tissue guards. EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 2 PLATES, AN OUTLINE LITHOGRAPH of plate one, ‘Le Vol du Heron 1’, listing in pencil in lower margin the participants of the royal hunting party, including Mr Schlegel, the author of this book, and a mounted ORIGINAL SEPIA DRAWING by J.B. Sonderland of plate ‘Le Vol du Heron 2’ (the drawing with several clean repaired tears, the longest 85mm). (Margin of title lightly spotted, outer margin of pp.85-86 with several closed tears, long but clean closed tear in lower margin of ‘Explication de Planche’, a few plate margins very lightly spotted.) Contemporary red half morocco, title stamped in gilt on cover (rubbed). Provenance: C.F.G.R. Schwerdt (bookplate, the copy described in his catalogue II, p. 150; purchased from him in 1946).
A UNIQUE COPY OF THE ONLY EDITION OF 'THE FINEST WORK ON FALCONRY WHICH HAS EVER BEEN PRODUCED' (Harting), both on account of 'the beauty of the plates' and 'general accuracy of the letterpress', an opinion supported by Schwerdt who found the life-size illustrations of hawks 'by far the finest ever produced in any book on falconry'. The work was a collaborative effort between Schlegel, director of the National Natural History Museum in Leiden, Verster de Wulverhorst, Inspector of Hunting and Fishery in the province of South Holland and hunting author, and Joseph Wolf and J.B. Sonderman, whose work (with that of other contributing artists), was entrusted to the lithographic publishing firm of Arnz at Leiden. Sonderland's frontispiece contains eleven falconry vignettes, while the two plates after him depict heron hawking in 1844. Two other plates contain figures of hoods, jesses, lures and other accessories, while 12 plates portray magnificent figures of hawks after Joseph Wolf. Perhaps the most famous is that of the 'Groënlandais' or white gyrfalcon, which Peter Tuijn in his study of the Traité de Fauconnerie (Quaerendo 25, 1995, pp. 289-308) shows to have been based on a portrait of the bird by Pierre Louis Dubourcq. Harting 194; Fine Bird Books p. 138; Lindner 11.1793.01; Nissen IVB 832; Schwerdt II, p. 150; Souhart 424-425; Zimmer p. 554.
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