5 volumes gr. in-4° (37 x 28 cm) avec 600 pl. en couleurs d'époque et gommé par l'éditeur d'après Nicolas Huet et Jean Gabriel Prêtre. Demi veau rouge moderne, décor. en or
Complete set of the large in-4to issue of a beautifully executed bird book, intended as a continuation to Buffon's 'Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (1770-1786) and considered to be 'the most monumental work of the post-Napoleonic period' (Balis). The beautifully hand-coloured and skillfully engraved plates were made after drawings by the respected artists Nicolas Huet and Jean Gabriel Prêtre. The work was published in 102 instalments from 1820 to 1839 and appeared simultaneously in both folio and 4°. In Januari 1820 Temminck visited Baron Meiffren Laugier de Chartrouse who, like Temminck, owned a collection of exotic birds. Some time earlier Heinrich Kuhn had become his guest, and now the Baron steered the conversation towards a plan that he had been nursing for some time. This was nothing less than to continue the series of pictures in which the younger Daubenton, with his 973 plates of birds for the Planches enluminées, had sought to represent most of the species known in his day. Because the Baron did not feel capable of writing a scholarly commentary, the connection with Temminck, a specialist both learned and well-to-do, was very important to him. Temminck was ready to cooperate immediately... The artists were his old favorite, Prêtre, and Laugier's man, Huet... At first none of the was accompanied by a text, but served only to illustrate and name species of birds that had been discovered only recently, because, as if Napoleon's fall had signaled to adventurous naturalists that their moment had come, new items soon began to arrive from all over the world (Streseman). Plates are not signed in numerical order. With some foxing around the edges of the margins of some text leaves, not affecting any of the plates. In very good condition. A beautiful set, complete with all its plates, of this magnificent executed and monumental bird book. Ref.: Nissen, IVB 932; Anke 502; Balsi, Van diverse pluimage 75
