Coenraad Temminck | Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux, 1838, 5 vols, contemporary half calf

Coenraad Jacob Temminck

Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux, pour servir de suite et de complément aux planches enluminées de Buffon. Paris: F.G. Levrault, 1838

5 volumes, folio (542 x 355mm.), large paper copy, 600 hand-coloured engraved plates, contemporary half calf, leaves uncut, marbled endpapers, some spotting, volume 1 rebacked retaining original spine, upper joint of volume 3 splitting

Not least because of this monumental work, Temminck (1778-1858), who directed the National Museum of Natural History at Leiden, is regarded as one of the foremost ornithologists of his time. This work is notable for its monumentality and numerous fine hand-coloured illustrations, yet collations for it vary because of its complex and irregular publishing history.

LITERATURE:

Anker 503; Fine Bird Books, p. 111; McGill/Wood, p. 593 ("remarkable colored illustrations"); Nissen IVB 932; Zimmer, pp. 626-628

PROVENANCE:

Henry Gee Barnard (1789–1859), Captain of the Scots Greys, of Cave Castle, near Beverley, Yorkshire, armorial bookplates