Beschreibung:

EDWARDS, George (1694-1773). A Natural History of Uncommon Birds, and of some rare and undescribed animals, quadrupedes, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. London: C. Rickaby for the author, at the Royal College of Physicians, 1743-51 [but after 1764]. And: Gleanings of Natural History, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants, &c. London: C. Rickaby and G. Sidney for the author at the Royal College of Physicians, 1758-64. 2 works in 7 volumes, 4° (286 x 230mm). With text to French translation, Histoire Naturelle de divers oiseaux , bound at the back of the first four volumes. Single general title to Natural History and Gleanings with engraved vignette, and 15 other titles comprising 4 section titles in English to Natural History , French title to Histoire Naturelle with engraved vignette and 4 section titles in French (dated 1745-51), 6 parallel titles to the Gleanings , 3 in English and 3 in French, and parallel text in English and French throughout, dedications in vols. II, III, V, VI and VII, 210 AND 152 FINE HAND-COLOURED ENGRAVED PLATES respectively, numbered 1-362, by and after Edwards, uncoloured plate of "Un Samojed" in vol. II. (Without the engraved portrait of Edwards and frontispiece, plate 314 loose, plates 137-8 and 154-6 spotted, occasional light soiling.) Early 19th-century straight-grained blue morocco, ruled and tooled in gilt and blind, spine gilt in six compartments, lettered in two, g.e. (joints and covers rubbed, occasionally with slight loss of surface). A fine, clean set of Edward's extensive and beautifully-illustrated ornithological survey. The Gleanings was published as a continuation of the Natural-History , with the plates numbered consecutively: the two parts are now usually considered as volumes I-VII of the same work. Edwards supervised the colouring of the plates personally: his colourists worked from model copies of the plates coloured by Edwards himself. 316 of the engravings contain birds. Fine Bird Books states that "At its date of issue, the Natural History and Gleanings was one of the most important of all bird books, both as a Fine Bird Book and as a work of Ornithology." The present copy is a late issue with a new general title page to both works, bound in volume I. It was certainly printed after the last part of the Gleanings as it refers to "Three Hundred and Sixty-two Copper Plates" (instead of the usual "Two Hundred and Ten") and states that the work is "In Seven Parts". The setting-out of the descriptive text in vol. IV and the dedication in vol. V also seems to differ from that recorded in the first two editions. Cf. Zimmer pp. 192-200; Anker 124-126; Nissen IVB 286-289; Fine Bird Books p. 73 (all describing first and second editions). (7)