NATURAL HISTORY 2018 Shapero Rare Books 1 4 Shapero Rare Books NATUR AL HISTORY Including Works on Paper, and Sporting Books 2018
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NATURAL HISTORY 2018 Shapero Rare Books 1 4 Shapero Rare Books NATUR AL HISTORY including works on paper, and sporting books 2018 32 Saint George Street London W1S 2EA +44 20 7493 0876 [email protected] shapero.com Shapero Rare Books 5 CONTENTS Natural History 06 Sporting Books 68 Works on Paper 88 (including Watercolours and Modern & Contemporary Prints) Shapero Rare Books NATUR AL HISTORY Shapero Rare Books 5 THE SC ARCE FIRST EDITION 1. ALBIN, ELEAZAR. A natural history of birds. Illustrated with a hundred and one copper plates, curiously engraven from the life. Published by the author Eleazar Albin, and carefully colour’d by his daughter and self, from the originals, drawn from the live birds. Printed for the author: and sold by William Innys in St. Paul’s Church Yard; John Clarke under the Royal-Exchange, Cornhill; and John Brindley at the King’s Arms in New Bond-Street, London 1731-1734. THE FIRST BRITISH BIRD BOOK TO USE COLOURED PLATES. ‘For the most part Albin delineated one bird per plate. The birds are placed on a branch or on the ground, each part coloured. The proportions of the birds are a distinct improvement on those in Willoughby and Ray... Albin produced his paints in a rather strange manner according to Petiver’s account. For his reds he washed and dried vermilion pigment in four waters and then proceeded to ‘grind it in boys urine three times, yn [then] gum arabic it and grind it in Brandy wine.’ Whatever his methods and however singular the contribution by his sons, this very first effort at colouring plates depicting birds is highly commendable and the results were gratifying, for the book was popular.’ (Jackson, Bird Etchings). First edition, first issue. 3 volumes, 4to., [8],96,[4]; [8],92,[2]; [8],95,[1] pp., 306 etched plates with original hand colour, captioned in Latin and English within the plate mark, a few plates cropped, occasional light soiling, generally a clean well margined copy, contemporary mottled calf, covers with broad gilt borders, sometime expertly rebacked preserving richly gilt spines, red and green morocco labels, neat restoration to some corners, edges rubbed, an excellent set. Anker, 4 & 5; Jackson, Bird Etchings pp 65-75; Mullens & Swann p8; Nissen IVB, 14. Price: £35,000 [ref: 97615] 6 Shapero Rare Books Shapero Rare Books 7 WITH MONKEY TOOLS BY BOZERIAN 2. AUDEBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE. Histoire naturelle des singes et des makis. Chez Desray, Paris, An Huitieme [1800]. A FINE FRESH LARGE PAPER COPY IN A HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY BINDING BY BOZERIAN, OF THE EARLIEST ILLUSTRATED MONOGRAPH ON MONKEYS AND AUDEBERT’S FIRST ORIGINAL WORK. Published in 10 parts, the first two in February and July 1798, the remainder between January and October 1799. Audebert (1759-1800), was born at Rochefort. He studied painting and drawing at Paris. The present monograph, which divided the monkeys into six families, was the more impressive for employing a colour-printing process in which all the colours were printed from one plate and oil paint was substituted for gouache. In developing this new technique, his experience as a distinguished miniature painter was probably important. His interest turned to natural history after a meeting in 1789 with Gigot-d’Orex, a rich amateur collector of specimens. When Audebert died at the young age of 41, his reputation as an artist-naturalist was assured both by the present work and the later Oiseaux dorés (Paris, 1800-1802). First edition. 2 volumes in 1, folio (52 x 34.5 cm). 63 copper engraved plates, including 61 printed in colour and finished by hand, contemporary veau blond gilt by Bozerian (signed at foot of spine), flat spine with monkey tools in compartments, all edges gilt, a fine copy. Brunet I, 550; Nissen ZVB, 156; Wood, p. 206. Price: £16,500 [ref: 90035] 8 Shapero Rare Books Shapero Rare Books 9 3. BOOTH, EDWARD THOMAS. Rough notes on the birds observed during twenty-five years’ shooting and collecting in the British Islands. R.H. Porter and Messrs. Dulau & Co., London, 1881-1887. Uncommon. Edward Booth was a wealthy bird-watcher and sportsman who stuffed his own specimens and mounted them in their natural surroundings in glass cases, aiming always to present the birds in as natural an attitude and setting as possible. It was these specimens, chiefly from the Scottish Highlands and Norfolk Broads and now in the Brighton Museum, which Neale used for his drawings. ‘These are very handsome folio plates whose composition is similar to those in Dresser’s book’ (Jackson). Provenance: ‘Wootton Fitzpaine, Charmouth’ (blind stamp to flyleaves). First edition. 3 volumes, folio, [i]-vii, [1 (blank)], [4 (list of plates, blank, errata, blank)] pp., 116 leaves text (in which are printed 2 lithographic vignettes); [i]-v, [1 (blank)], [2 (list of plates, blank)] pp., 132 leaves text; [i]-v, [1 (blank)], [2 (list of plates, blank)] pp., 112 leaves text (with one lithographic illustration in text), 114 hand-coloured lithographic plates after Edward Neale and 2 hand-coloured lithographic maps; occasional spotting, rarely heavy, 2 marginal tears to plate of the Grey Phalarope (vol. II), otherwise clean and bright; contemporary half hard-grained morocco with grained cloth sides, borders filleted in gilt, spines tooled in gilt and blind, lettered and dated in gilt directly, top-edges gilt; spines sunned, boards a little rubbed, a little worn at extremities, otherwise a very handsome set. Anker/Copenhagen 51 (‘beautiful plates’); Ayer/Zimmer pp.79-81; Fine Bird Books (1990 ed.) p.79; Nissen IVB 121. Price: £6,500 [ref: 97458] 10 Shapero Rare Books IMPORTANT WORK ON THE CAMELLIA JAPONICA 4. CHANDLER, ALFRED; WIllIAM BEATTIE BOOTH. Illustrations and descriptions of the plants which compose the natural order camellieae, and of the varieties of Camellia Japonica, cultivated in the gardens of Great Britain. John and Arthur Arch, London, 1831. ONE OF FINEST WORKS ON CAMELLIAS, HERE IN ITS MOST DESIRABLE STATE. Described by Wilfred Blunt as ‘handsome and rare’, with magnificent plates after the drawings of Alfred Chandler ‘beautifully coloured with opaque pigments’ (Dunthorne), the work was available in three issues: uncoloured, coloured, or -as in this example- coloured and highly finished with gum arabic. Chandler’s drawings were mostly based on examples of camellia grown by at the nursery at Vauxhall run by his father. Intended to be a two-volume work, the second volume was never published. The Camellia was first introduced into Europe by Lord Petre in 1739, and the work includes Japanese, Chinese and English-bred varieties. Beautiful evergreen shrubs, sometimes growing into small trees, they are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. The best known species, albeit not necessarily known consciously, is the Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, of major commercial importance because tea is made from its leaves. While the finest teas are produced by C. sinensis thanks to millennia of selective breeding of this species, many other camellias can be used to produce a similar beverage. For example, in some parts of Japan, tea made from C. sasanqua leaves is popular. Volume 1 (all published) folio (38 x 28 cm.). With 40 hand-coloured plates (36 engraved, 4 lithographed) by S. Watts and Weddell after Chandler, heightened in gum arabic; fine contemporary green half morocco gilt, covers with L-shaped corners with multiple gilt fillets, flat spine with gilt geometric designs and floral tooling, marbled sides and edges, plates clean and fresh, a most attractive example. Nissen BBI 209; Dunthorne 77; Great Flower Books, page 51; Stafleu TL2 651 Price: £15,000 [ref: 90337] Shapero Rare Books 11 5. [CHINA]. An album depicting silkworms. N.d. [circa 1820]. The production of silk by the Chinese was a closely guarded secret for some 2500 years, before being smuggled out to Japan, India, and Korea, coming to the West comparatively recently. Feeding on white mulberry leaves, domestic silk moths are closely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. The present album provides a fine record of the life cycle of the silkworm. Such large format albums are scarce. Large album (42 by 33 cm) containing 14 watercolours on Chinese paper, each mounted on heavier paper, the album bound in contemporary Chinese patterned cloth; light wear and a little restoration to binding. Price: £8,500 [ref: 95288] 6. [CHINESE SCHOOL]. An album of Chinese bird-and-flower paintings. [Circa 1900]. A MOST ATTRACTIVE ALBUM REFLECTING WHAT LAURENCE BINYON CALLED THE CHINESE ‘EXQUISITE COURTESY TO NATURE’ INSPIRED BY DAOIST PHILOSOPHY. 45 of the watercolours are of natural history subjects, principally birds, set amongst foliage. The remaining studies depict Chinese types and costumes. Lively, and showing great care and skill, they show the fluency and feeling of movement that came from the Chinese tradition of painting with the calligrapher’s brush rather than pen or pencil. Most of the drawings are in colour, a few in ink monochrome. 4to. (30 x 26.4 cm.), 59 drawings in ink and watercolour of birds and other animals, flowers and figure studies, twentieth century cloth. Price: £9,000 [ref: 89587] 12 Shapero Rare Books 7. COUCH, JONATHAN. A History of the Fishes of the British Islands. Groombridge and Sons, London, 1868-69. ‘Couch was born in 1789 in Polperro in Cornwall and died there in 1870, having spent his life being interested in more or less everything, from potatoes to pilchards, although he was by profession a doctor... A History of the Fishes of the British Islands made a valuable contribution not only to science, but to the art of angling and it was relied on as a reference work for many decades after his death.