Lesson, René Primevere - A Collection of Four Ornithological Works, Uniformly bound.
£3,200
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 19 June 2018 at 12:00 BST
Description
Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux-Mouches. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, [1829-30]; 46, 223, 86 plates, all printed in colour and finished by hand (including 48 bis);
Histoire Naturelle des Colibris, suivie d'un Supplément a l'histoire naturelle des Oiseaux-Mouches. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, [1830-32]; 10, 192, [4], 66 hand-coloured engraved plates (including 12bis & 13 bis);
Les Trochilidées, ou les Colibris et les Oiseaux-Mouches. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, [1832-33]; [4], [iv], 43, 168, [3], 66 hand-coloured engraved plates;
Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de Paradis et des Épimaques. Paris: A. Bertrand, [1830], 8, 34, [2], 248; 40 hand-coloured plates (including 11 bis, 25 bis & 25 ter)
Uniform contemporary green straight-grained morocco gilt, with the ticket of "Upham and Beet, 146 New Bond St., London", red and blue morocco lettering pieces, scattered spotting to plates and text, 4 volumes, 8vo, (228 x 137mm.)
Footnote
Provenance:The Library of a Country House.
Note First editions, together 4 volumes, a very attractive set.
René Primevere Lesson, French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist and herpetologist, was born at Rochefort in 1794. During the Napolonic wars he served in the French navy and in 1822-1825 served as pharmacist and botanist on Duperrey's round-the-world voyage of La Coquille, in the course of which he collected natural history specimens with his fellow surgeon Prosper Garnot and officer Dumont d'Urville. During his visits to the Moluccas and New Guinea, Lesson became the first naturalist to see birds of paradise in the wild. On his return to France he spent seven years preparing the vertebrate zoological section of the official account of the expedition, Voyage autour du monde entrepris par ordre du Gouvernement sur la corvette La Coquille (1826 to 1839). During this time he also compiled the monographs on hummingbirds and birds of paradise offered for sale here, as well as describing many new species of amphibians and reptiles.
The beautiful hand-coloured engravings were made from paintings by Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, Bénvalet, Bessa, Oudart and Mme. Lesson.