Henry Leonard Meyer | Illustrations of British birds, [c.1835–41], 4 volumes, contemporary half russia

Henry Leonard Meyer

Illustrations of British birds. London: Longman and Co., [c.1835–1841]

4 volumes, folio (370 x 265mm.), lithographed titles and contents leaves, 319 hand-coloured lithographed plates, contemporary half russia, some spotting, one or two marginal tears, bindings rubbed and rebacked

“One of our most valuable illustrated works on ornithology” (Mullens and Swann). An artist and naturalist of Dutch origin, Meyer made ornithological drawings from nature and from his own collection of birds. Each plate shows a bird accompanied by its egg, its nest "when curious or rare" and the female "whenever her plumage differs materially from that of the male"; some have accompanying descriptions. Meyer's wife, Mary Anne Moor, herself an accomplished artist, assisted in engraving the plates and may even have been responsible for some of the original drawings. The work is of notorious bibliographical complexity, investigated in W.G. Hale's monograph, The Meyers’ Coloured Illustrations of British Birds and their Eggs (London, 2007).

LITERATURE:

Fine Bird Books, pp. 93/123; Mullens and Swann, p. 398; Nissen IVB 627

PROVENANCE:

Francis Edward Paget (1806-1882), rector of Elford, eldest son of Sir Edward Paget, Groom to the Bedchamber of George IV and Commander in Chief in India, book label