Beschreibung:

Jardine (William, & Prideaux John Selby . Illustrations of Ornithology, 4 volumes, 1st edition, Edinburgh: W. H. Lizars, [1826-43], engraved title-pages, 207 hand-coloured etched plates numbered 1-110, 106-136, 139-151, I-LIII (plate 93 misnumbered 94, 135-6 misnumbered 138-7), of which 1-151 (i.e.154) each with uncoloured duplicate as issued, marginal paper restoration and repair to plate 31 and duplicate (with loss to image in the latter), repaired closed tear to 138 duplicate, mild toning, variable offsetting, occasional light spotting, finger-soiling and other marks, contemporary ownership inscriptions ('M. R. Lea') to title-pages, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, modern green crushed morocco gilt, 4to (31.5 x 21.5 cm) (Qty: 4) Anker 222; Fine Bird Books p. 108; Nissen IVB 472; Wood p. 405; Zimmer pp. 322-4. 'This celebrated work was issued in 19 parts, constituting chiefly of a series of beautiful hand-colored plates with explanatory text of birds of many regions by well-known artists, among them Lear, Gould, and the principal text contributors' (Wood). Illustrations of Ornithology was published to complement Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology (1821-33) and in response to the paucity of works on non-European avifauna. Apart from John Latham's General History of Birds (1821-8), which Jardine and Selby deemed insufficient, there were in 1826 ‘fewer than a dozen titles published in Europe covering birds of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and one for Australia’ (Jackson & Davis, Sir William Jardine A Life in Natural History, p. 37). To obtain specimens Jardine organised a collecting drive of unprecedented scale, applying to agents in the Cape of Good Hope, Jamaica, Barbados, Madeira, South Carolina, Trinidad, the Gambia and Sierra Leone, Buenos Aires and North America, and soliciting examples from relatives and associates travelling to Australia, India and Africa. The work is rarely encountered complete with the fourth volume of 53 plates, which was published between 1836 and 1843, and is described in the 'Note' to the rear of the third volume as a 'New Series'.