Lot 277
Lewin, William
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 10 January 2007 at 11:00 GMT
Description
The Birds of Great Britain, with their Eggs, accurately Figured. London: for the Author, 1789-1794, 7 volumes, 4to (335 x 258mm.), 322 original body-colour paintings by Lewin, occasionally heightened with gum arabic, (270 of birds, 52 of eggs) 23 paintings in volume 1 with Lewin's stamp erased from lower margins, contemporary English marbled calf gilt, covers with double gilt fillet border enclosing greek-key roll, flat spines gilt in compartments with two birds perched on the rim of a chalice, green morocco lettering pieces, red morocco volume labels with green morocco onlay, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, bound without plate 171*, rebacked, original spines laid down with occasional repairs to head and foot, neat repairs to corners
Footnote
Note: A very handsome copy of the first edition of one of the rarest of all bird books.
Lewin produced only about 60 sets of his work, a Herculean task as he individually hand-painted all 323 illustrations sixty times over for his subscribers - instead of conforming to the standard procedure and illustrating the work with engravings coloured by hand. The presence of the deleted stamps in volume 1 and the consistently high quality of the paintings indicates that this is probably one of the earlier sets to be completed. Lewin, a native of London, first made his living as a designer of textile patterns, and then as a painter specialising in natural history subjects for the dowager Duchess of Portland and others. The last ten years of his life was devoted to this monumental work, which was the most magnificent and comprehensive record of British birds ever produced. A second, much commoner, edition with hand-coloured engraved plates was issued in 1794-1801.
Fine Bird Books, p.91; Lowndes 2:351; Nissen IVB 562; Wood, p.435].
Provenance: William Amyas Bailward (1852-1918), armorial bookplate