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Lear. Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall

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first edition, presentation copy from the author to John Henderson, [one of 100 copies], 17 hand-coloured lithograph plates by J.W.Moore after Lear, ink stamp of North Devon Athenaeum on title verso, original cloth, rebacked, Privately Printed, Knowsley, 1846; Hoofed Quadrupeds, 62 lithograph plates by Hawkins, all but 9 hand-coloured or printed in colour, a few with short tears or repairs, a few trimmed short (?possibly supplied from another copy), occasional soiling or light foxing, title and text leaves also with some foxing, original cloth, rebacked in black morocco, rubbed, Privately Printed, Knowsley, 1850, [Nissen IVB 392; Nissen ZB 1691; Fine Bird Books 79; Anker 189; Wood 368], folio (2)

***Lear was engaged at Knowsley, home of the Earl of Derby, between 1832 and 1836, to draw the fine plates for the first volume whose subjects comprise nine birds, seven mammals and a turtle. Lord Derby's menagerie was one of the largest private zoological gardens in England. Lear was a great favourtite with the family and it was for his patron's children that he wrote his droll Book of Nonsense, first published in 1846. Provenance: bookplates of John Aspinall and Alan Waterworth..

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