Audebert and Viellot | Oiseaux dorés ou a reflets métalliques, Paris, 1802, 2 volumes, contemporary russia

Audebert, Jean Baptiste and Louis Jean Pierre Viellot

Oiseaux dorés ou a reflets métalliques. Paris: Desray, [1800]-1802

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, small folio (335 x 240mm.), 190 etched plates by Audebert, some folding, printed in colours including gold by Langlois, contemporary diced russia gilt, some slight foxing

A FINE COPY. The general title of the work is actually taken from the half-titles, each volume treating several genera and having its own title-page: Histoire naturelle et generale des colibris, oiseaux-mouches, jacamars et promerops (volume 1) and Histoire naturelle et generale des grimperaux et des oiseaux de paradis (volume 2). The humming birds (colibris and oiseaux-mouches) are treated most thoroughly. "The colours of the birds and their handsome appearance have evidently been the cause of their selection for inclusion in the book. The plates with the bird portraits are in beautiful colours; in this respect they are among the best colour prints found in ornithology" (Anker).

In his preface, Audebert justifiably lays great stress on the fact that all the colours, even the gold referred to in the title, are printed by a process devised by himself, and not applied by hand. The plates were etched by Audebert after his own designs and those of "les plus habiles artistes de Paris," with the assistance of Louis Bouquet in colouring the plates, and of Langlois in printing them in oil colours. Audebert died before he was able to complete his great work, finishing only the section on the colibris, after which it was continued by Viellot on the basis of Audebert's drawings and his notes on the oiseaux-mouches.

LITERATURE:

Anker 14; Fine Bird Books, p. 56; Wood, p. 206; Nissen IVB 47; Ronsil 103; Zimmer, p. 17