![[FRANOIS-NICOLAS and ALEXANDRE MARTINET]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/CKS/1998_CKS_05913_0129_000(104330).jpg?w=1)
Details
[FRANOIS-NICOLAS and ALEXANDRE MARTINET]
Petit Atlas d'Ornithologie, ou collection choisies d'oiseaux. [Paris: A.Martinet, n.d. but circa 1815]. 2° (458 x 300mm). Collation: [1]2, 2-32; [1]2, 22 (-2.2 ?blank), 3-42, 52 (-5.2 ?blank). [pp.1-2] Half-title (verso blank), [pp.3-4] Note de l'éditeur, pp.[5]-12 épitre a Buffon; [pp.1]-6 Tableau Général, pp.[7-]16 Table Alphabétique. 150 FINE HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVED PLATES by F.N. or A.Martinet, plates numbered and with occasional corrections to the lettering by a single contemporary hand. (Without a title-page, some general very light spotting or soiling to blank margins of plates, about 20 plates with more obtrusive spotting or browning, half-title and the following leaf stained.) Contemporary French red morocco-backed glazed-paper boards, covers with gilt grape-vine roll-tool border, the flat spine divided into six compartments by a decorative roll, lettered in one, four of the others with a centrally-placed bird in foliage tool, uncut (extremities scuffed, corners bumped).
A FINE AND VERY RARE COLLECTION of Martinet's bird plates, including European birds and exotic species such as parrots, pheasants and various other tropical birds. From the 'note from the publisher' it is clear that this is a re-issue of a selection of F.N.Martinet's work but also intended as a tribute to Buffon and supplement to the bird section of the 127-volume Sonnini edition of Buffon's works. The Bradley Martin collection included a 2 volume folio work by Martinet Histoire des Oiseaux ([Paris:1782-1795]) with 232 plates (including 18 duplicates): the present work appears to be a re-issue of a selection of plates from this work. The dating is problematic but the publisher writes of a period of calm after 25 years of upheaval which would imply a publication date of 1815 or thereabouts, and Sonnini's edition of Buffon was published between 1798 and 1807. Ronsil records what appears to be a copy of the same work, attributes it to Alexandre Martinet, with some plates dated 1785-1791, with a title-page that includes an imprint, but again no date. Nissen misinterprets the Ronsil entry and gives a date of 1785-1791. Nissen IVB 596; Ronsil 1931.
Petit Atlas d'Ornithologie, ou collection choisies d'oiseaux. [Paris: A.Martinet, n.d. but circa 1815]. 2° (458 x 300mm). Collation: [1]
A FINE AND VERY RARE COLLECTION of Martinet's bird plates, including European birds and exotic species such as parrots, pheasants and various other tropical birds. From the 'note from the publisher' it is clear that this is a re-issue of a selection of F.N.Martinet's work but also intended as a tribute to Buffon and supplement to the bird section of the 127-volume Sonnini edition of Buffon's works. The Bradley Martin collection included a 2 volume folio work by Martinet Histoire des Oiseaux ([Paris:1782-1795]) with 232 plates (including 18 duplicates): the present work appears to be a re-issue of a selection of plates from this work. The dating is problematic but the publisher writes of a period of calm after 25 years of upheaval which would imply a publication date of 1815 or thereabouts, and Sonnini's edition of Buffon was published between 1798 and 1807. Ronsil records what appears to be a copy of the same work, attributes it to Alexandre Martinet, with some plates dated 1785-1791, with a title-page that includes an imprint, but again no date. Nissen misinterprets the Ronsil entry and gives a date of 1785-1791. Nissen IVB 596; Ronsil 1931.