Buffon, Georges Louis Marie Leclerc, Comte de

Histoire naturelle des oiseaux. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale, 1770–1786



10 volumes, folio (19 7/8 x 13 3/4 in.; 507 x 349, uncut). 973 fine handcolored etched plates after and by François Nicolaus Martinet under the supervision of Edme Daubenton, text printed within ornamental borders, numerous woodcut head- and tailpieces, 12 title-pages (2 sectional titles each in volumes 6 and 8), directions to the binder and errata at the end of each volume, general index at the end of the final volume; some scattered and mostly marginal soiling, browning, and spotting, occasional marginal dampstaining in volumes 3–7. Contemporary, and likely original, half red straight-grain morocco over red boards, spines gilt, plain endpapers and edges; extremities scuffed and a bit worn, hinges weak in volumes 7 and 8 and starting from casing, spines a tad darkened, bookplates removed.

George M. Pflaumer (his sale, Sotheby's, 3 June 1997, lot 80)

Ayer/Zimmer 104; Copenhagen/Anker 76; Ellis/Mengel 411; Fine Bird Books 83; McGill/Wood 267; Nissen, IVB 158; Stresemann 59 

An exceptional as-issued copy of the large-paper issue of "the most ambitious and comprehensive bird book ... at the time of its publication," which "ranks still as one of the most important of all bird books from the collector's point of view" (Great Bird Books).

Martinet's plates were originally intended to illustrate the nine ornithological volumes of Buffon's forty-four–volume Histoire naturelle générale et particulière (Paris, 1749–1804), but this plan was abandoned due to the limited number of impressions the plates would yield. A new suite of 262 uncolored plates was commissioned from de Sève for the bird volumes of the general work, while Buffon prepared a special text for a sumptuous folio edition of Martinet's handcolored plates. At Buffon's direction, Martinet began drawing and painting his subjects in 1765, at the same time etching the plates under the supervision of Edme Daubenton. In the course of production, over eighty artists and assistants were engaged, ultimately producing 973 ornithological plates, issued in forty-two fascicles from 1765 to 1780. (An additional thirty-five plates depicting animals, reptiles, insects, and corals were produced at the same time, but they are not mentioned in the body of the text nor called for in the list of plates; sets are most commonly found without them).

While Buffon's Histoire naturelle des oiseaux is chiefly valued today for Martinet's brilliant "planches enluminées," the text was also revolutionary. "Its greatest value lay in the revival of an appreciation of living things in their natural environment" (Stresemann). In the past twenty years only six complete copies of the large-paper issue—including the present set—have appeared at auction.