LEVAILLANT (François). 1753-1824. Histoire naturelle des Ois - Lot 26

LEVAILLANT (François). 1753-1824. Histoire naturelle des Oiseaux de Paradis et des Rolliers, suivie de celle des Toucans et des Barbus (et de celle des Promerops et des Guêpiers). Paris, Denné et Perlet, 1806 - 1807. 3 vol. in-folio (526x340), red half-maroq, ornate spines, n. r. (Simier, rel. du Roi). Magnificent work, one of the finest and most renowned on birds. It contains: 1) for the Histoire des Oiseaux de Paradis: 114 superb large plates drawn from life by Barraband, engraved by Perée and Grémilliet and printed in color. 2) for the very rare supplement to the work: Histoire des Promerops et des Guêpiers: 83 very fine large plates by the same authors and Auguste, some engraved by Guyard (père et fils), Bouquet and Barrière, also printed in color (it should be noted that pl. 3 of the latter work never existed), for a total of 197 bird plates. Jacques Barraband (1768-1809), painter at the Gobelins and Sèvres manufactures, was certainly one of the finest natural history painters of his time, and illustrated numerous ornithological works, including a chapter of the Description de l'Egypte. The faux-titres state that "all the figures in this work were drawn from life by Barraband peintre, engraved by Perée, and Gremilliet, and printed in color by Langlois and Rousset". The plates are printed using the new "poupée" process invented by Henri-Joseph Redouté, which applied the colors directly to the copper plates to produce the plates in a single pass (rather than one pass for each color). ABSOLUTELY COMPLETE EXEMPLAIRE RELIE À L'EPOQUE PAR SIMIER, FROM THE LIBRARY OF KING LOUIS-PHILIPPE (to whom the work is dedicated), bearing on the titles the stamps "Duc d'Orléans" and "Bibliothèque du Roi (Neuilly)". (Cat. de la vente des bibl. du roi Louis-Philippe, March 1852, Nos. 374 and 375). Anker 304 ; BM(NH) III, 1100 ; Brunet III: 1033 ; Fine Bird Books pp.90-91 ; Nissen IV, 559 ; Ronsil p.298 ; Wood p.434 ; Zimmer p.393. (2)