Lot 32C email save

LEWIN, William (1747-1795). The Birds of Great Br

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London: J. Johnson, [1793-]1796-1801. Eight parts in 4 volumes, 4to (283 x 218 mm). Parallel titles and text in English and French, 332 (of 336) hand-colored etched plates by William Lewin and sons (278 of birds; 58 of eggs). Expertly bound to style in speckled calf, covers with gilt decorative roll border, spines in six compartments, red morocco lettering piece in the second and gilt-numbered in the third, repeated gilt design in others. Condition: lacking the Green Woodpecker, Spotted Woodpecker, Tree Creeper and Rose-Coloured Ouzel, all from part II, titles to part V very lightly spotted, few plates have offset slightly, faint intemittent spotting to a few others. Provenance: John Henry Gurney Jr. (1848-1922, ornithologist and author, signature in the first volume); Lynn Abbott Trust. the j.h. gurney jr. copy of the second edition of this important work, the first to be illustrated with etched plates. The first edition, illustrated entirely with watercolors, was limited to about 60 copies and is now almost unobtainable. The publication of the present edition began in 1793: Lewin produced etchings of the first 103 plates, the rest were made by his three sons Thomas, Thomas William and John William. Lewin's outstanding ornithological achievement was that "his was first attempt to include pictures of the eggs of all known British birds in his book" (Christine Jackson. Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World [1999] pp. 336-337). According to Anker, these were, in the main, drawn "from specimens in the Duchess of Portland's collection". John Henry Gurney, Jr. a well-known ornithologist, was the son of the important ornithologist John Henry Gurney (1819-1890). John Henry Gurney Jr. was the author of a number of well-received bird books, most appropriately perhaps The Early Annals of Ornithology (London: Witherby, 1921). Anker 306; Nissen IVB 562; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.119; Zimmer p.395. (4)

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