![VENNOR, Henry G. (1840-1884). Our Birds of Prey, or the Eagles, Hawks, and Owls of Canada. Montreal: [D. Bentley and Co. for] Dawson Brothers, 1876.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/NYR/2017_NYR_14993_0139_000(vennor_henry_g_our_birds_of_prey_or_the_eagles_hawks_and_owls_of_canad062516).jpg?w=1)
細節
VENNOR, Henry G. (1840-1884). Our Birds of Prey, or the Eagles, Hawks, and Owls of Canada. Montreal: [D. Bentley and Co. for] Dawson Brothers, 1876.
4to (267 x 197 mm). 30 mounted albumen photograph plates by William Notman, including frontispiece (some burnishing to photos, some mounts buckled). Original cross-grained cloth, the front cover with border in black centering a gilt figure of an owl holding a mouse, spine black-ruled and gilt-lettered (wear at ends of spine). Provenance: Fred Clareton (1876 gift inscription from Agnes Robertson, Montreal on flyleaf; his? embossed crest on title.)
FIRST EDITION, containing "every species of Falcon, Hawk, Buzzard, Harrier, Eagle and Owl, which has up to the present time been found in Canada." The Scottish-born photographer William Notman was one of the best portraitists in Canada in the period, and among his subjects were celebrated figures as wide ranging as Prince Arthur, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. He published a popular series of books of portraits to 1868, after which he only worked on books produced by other artists, such as this.
Vennor was born and lived throughout his life in Montreal. In 1866 he was closely associated with the first recorded identification of gold in the Precambrian rocks of Ontario while working under Sir William Edmond Logan in the Geological Survey of Canada. Privately, he continued to collect fossils and birds, a pastime that began when the young scientist was still a student at McGill. He was also considered a “weather prophet” after a “feeling in his bones” caused him to correctly predict a green Christmas and a muddy New Year’s Day for Montreal at the end of 1875.
Notman’s photographs are early examples in the field of natural history, and accompany Vennor’s detailed text stemming from months spent outdoors studying the birds, their nests, their habitats, and habits. Our Birds of Prey is an oft under-appreciated book, which Vennor claimed was a result of it being “too expensive for Canada.” See P. R. Eakins' entry in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003. Dionne 1740; Lande 2277; Wood 610; Zimmer p.652.
4to (267 x 197 mm). 30 mounted albumen photograph plates by William Notman, including frontispiece (some burnishing to photos, some mounts buckled). Original cross-grained cloth, the front cover with border in black centering a gilt figure of an owl holding a mouse, spine black-ruled and gilt-lettered (wear at ends of spine). Provenance: Fred Clareton (1876 gift inscription from Agnes Robertson, Montreal on flyleaf; his? embossed crest on title.)
FIRST EDITION, containing "every species of Falcon, Hawk, Buzzard, Harrier, Eagle and Owl, which has up to the present time been found in Canada." The Scottish-born photographer William Notman was one of the best portraitists in Canada in the period, and among his subjects were celebrated figures as wide ranging as Prince Arthur, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. He published a popular series of books of portraits to 1868, after which he only worked on books produced by other artists, such as this.
Vennor was born and lived throughout his life in Montreal. In 1866 he was closely associated with the first recorded identification of gold in the Precambrian rocks of Ontario while working under Sir William Edmond Logan in the Geological Survey of Canada. Privately, he continued to collect fossils and birds, a pastime that began when the young scientist was still a student at McGill. He was also considered a “weather prophet” after a “feeling in his bones” caused him to correctly predict a green Christmas and a muddy New Year’s Day for Montreal at the end of 1875.
Notman’s photographs are early examples in the field of natural history, and accompany Vennor’s detailed text stemming from months spent outdoors studying the birds, their nests, their habitats, and habits. Our Birds of Prey is an oft under-appreciated book, which Vennor claimed was a result of it being “too expensive for Canada.” See P. R. Eakins' entry in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003. Dionne 1740; Lande 2277; Wood 610; Zimmer p.652.