Harvie-Brown, J. A. (editor)
A Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland, complete set, several volumes inscribed or with letters
£404
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
comprising: Sutherland, Caithness, and West Cromarty; Outer Hebrides; Iona and Mull; Orkney Islands; Argyll and the Inner Hebrides; Moray Basin; Shetland Islands; North-West Highlands and Skye; Tay Basin and Strathmore; Tweed Area; Forth. Edinburgh: David Douglas [-Oliver and Boyd], 1887-1935. First editions, 11 works in 12 volumes (Moray Basin in 2 volumes), 8vo, original green cloth, top edges gilt, numerous plates including pictorial title-pages, Iona and Mull with bookplate (Lumley Graham), Outer Hebrides inscribed 'Norman Maclachlan, May 4th 1889, subscriber's copy' on front free endpaper, Moray Basin inscribed 'To Sir Herbert Maxwell Bt M.P., with the Publisher's very kind regards, June 27th 1896', and containing 2 autograph letters and 2 autograph notes from Harvie-Brown to Maxwell (all signed or initialled, 1897-1904, on various natural history and ornithology matters including the growth of mistletoe on oak, the jay population in the south-west counties of Scotland, the salmon, etc., one of the notes on verso of printed compliments slip and apparently concerning fire damage to Harvie-Brown's home of Dunipace, Larbert; all housed in 2 envelopes mounted to endpapers), Shetland inscribed 'H. Saunders, with T. E. Buckley's compts', spines of 6 works sunned, Sutherland [etc.] spine with small tear to rear joint and fraying to head and foot, Outer Hebrides spine defective [Mullens & Swann p. 282, all volumes except Shetland, p. 199, and Tweed and Forth, not listed].
Together with 5 others, Scottish ornithology, comprising: George Sim, The Vertebrate Fauna of "Dee", Aberdeen, 1903, first edition, 8vo, original cloth; Robert Gray, The Birds of the West of Scotland including the Outer Hebrides, 1871, first edition, original pictorial cloth gilt; J. A. Harvie-Brown, The Capercaillie in Scotland, 1879, first edition, original pictorial cloth gilt, laid-in autograph letter from Scottish ornithologist James Bartholomew to Dr. I. D. Pennie; John Morell McWilliam, The Birds of the Firth of Clyde, 1936, first edition, original cloth, dust jacket; ibid. The Birds of the Island of Bute, 1927, first edition, original cloth
Footnote
Note: '[Harvie-Brown's] contributions to ornithological science are literally legion ... His greatest work, however, and the one that will form an imperishable monument to his name, is the series of volumes on the vertebrate fauna of Scotland, most of which were written either by himself, or in collaboration with other ornithologists' (Mullens & Swann). The projected accounts of the Clyde and Solway areas do not seem to have materialised. Sir Herbert Maxwell (1845-1937), recipient of this copy of A Fauna of the Moray Basin, was a Conservative politician, noted author and authority on salmon fishing.
Provenance: From the library of Dr Ian Durance Pennie (1916-2002), Scottish physician and ornithologist. Pennie was co-founder and vice-president of the Scottish Ornithologists' Club, and contributed numerous articles to journals including the Scottish Naturalist, British Birds and the SOC's own Scottish Birds. He spent most of his career in Sutherland, serving as the Sutherland correspondent for the SOC's annual Scottish bird report, and was remembered in his obituary as a 'major contributor to Scottish ornithology' (Scottish Birds, 2002, pp. 57-8).