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Details
FRANOIS LEVAILLANT (1753-1824)
Histoire naturelle des perroquets. Paris: Levrault frères (later Levrault, Schoell & Co.), 1801-1805. 2 volumes, large 2° (517 x 340mm). Half-titles, 145 FINE ENGRAVED PLATES AFTER JACQUES BARRABAND, PRINTED IN COLOURS AND FINISHED BY HAND by Langlois under the direction of Bouquet. (Some light browning to text and about 12 plates in vol.II, occasional light marginal spotting to plates, not affecting plate area.) Crimson half morocco, the flat spine divided into seven compartments by double fillets, lettered in two compartments, the others decorated with two large alternating parrot tools.
A FINE LARGE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE SCARCEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL OF LEVAILLANT'S WORKS. This copy has particularly wide margins: the Bradley Martin copy measured 485 x 320mm., and the Botfield copy 506 x 323mm. The work was published in two formats, 4to and folio, both published in 24 parts. In addition 12 copies were issued in large folio with the plates in coloured and uncoloured states. The colouring in the 4to issue is apparently inferior according to Anker. Levaillant, one of the greatest French ornithologists was the son of the French consul in Dutch Guiana. He was born in Paramarimbo and seems to have inherited his father's love of travel. He became one of the first of a new breed of naturalists who attained prominence towards the end of the 18th century, studying and recording their subjects in their natural habitat. Barraband (1767 or 1768-1809) worked for the Gobelin factory and was considered the best ornithological artist of his time. Langlois's engravings capture the precision and beauty of his gouache and watercolour originals. "After he had made himself Emperor, it was part of Napoleon's deliberate policy to initiate a series of magnificant publications that would vie with those undertaken to the orders of louis XIV. These were sent as presents to crowned heads, men of science, and learned bodies, in evidence of the splendours of the Empire... The works of Levaillant owe their sumptous character to... [this].. impetus. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets is, unwittingly, a part of the glories of Napoleonic France" (Fine Bird Books).
Anker 303; Fine Bird Books p.90; Nissen IVB 558; Ripley 170; Wood p.434; Zimmer p.392. (2)
Histoire naturelle des perroquets. Paris: Levrault frères (later Levrault, Schoell & Co.), 1801-1805. 2 volumes, large 2° (517 x 340mm). Half-titles, 145 FINE ENGRAVED PLATES AFTER JACQUES BARRABAND, PRINTED IN COLOURS AND FINISHED BY HAND by Langlois under the direction of Bouquet. (Some light browning to text and about 12 plates in vol.II, occasional light marginal spotting to plates, not affecting plate area.) Crimson half morocco, the flat spine divided into seven compartments by double fillets, lettered in two compartments, the others decorated with two large alternating parrot tools.
A FINE LARGE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE SCARCEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL OF LEVAILLANT'S WORKS. This copy has particularly wide margins: the Bradley Martin copy measured 485 x 320mm., and the Botfield copy 506 x 323mm. The work was published in two formats, 4to and folio, both published in 24 parts. In addition 12 copies were issued in large folio with the plates in coloured and uncoloured states. The colouring in the 4to issue is apparently inferior according to Anker. Levaillant, one of the greatest French ornithologists was the son of the French consul in Dutch Guiana. He was born in Paramarimbo and seems to have inherited his father's love of travel. He became one of the first of a new breed of naturalists who attained prominence towards the end of the 18th century, studying and recording their subjects in their natural habitat. Barraband (1767 or 1768-1809) worked for the Gobelin factory and was considered the best ornithological artist of his time. Langlois's engravings capture the precision and beauty of his gouache and watercolour originals. "After he had made himself Emperor, it was part of Napoleon's deliberate policy to initiate a series of magnificant publications that would vie with those undertaken to the orders of louis XIV. These were sent as presents to crowned heads, men of science, and learned bodies, in evidence of the splendours of the Empire... The works of Levaillant owe their sumptous character to... [this].. impetus. His Histoire naturelle des perroquets is, unwittingly, a part of the glories of Napoleonic France" (Fine Bird Books).
Anker 303; Fine Bird Books p.90; Nissen IVB 558; Ripley 170; Wood p.434; Zimmer p.392. (2)