Histoire naturelle des oiseaux exotiques

/ ouvrage orné de figures peintes d’après nature par Pauquet. Et gravées sur acier. Paris : Pauquet Éditeur : Debure Libraire, 1836. First edition. Octavo, contemporary quarter morocco over blue marbled papered boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt; ex-libris label to front pastedown; additional hand-coloured half-title; pp. 156; eighty finely engraved plates of exotic birds from around the world, exquisitely coloured by hand, protected by tissue guards (some are torn); small marginal stain to half-title and title page, but a fine copy of a sumptuous book on exotic ornithology.

The first edition of Lemaire’s stand-alone publication on exotic birds, noteworthy for the finely detailed colouring of it plates, which includes many species from Australia and Oceania. Lemaire published another volume in 1837 on the birds of Europe, Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux d’Europe, which together with the present volume forms the series Bibliotheque Zoologique – the half-title of each volume.

Nissen IVB 540; Ripley, p.167; Ronsit 1735; Wood, p.431; Zimmer, p.383

The SLNSW holds the only copy of this book in Australian libraries; it also holds a preparatory watercolour for the plate of the Lyre Bird in this volume.