[KANGAROO] Naturgeschichtliches Fabelbuch

/ von August Gehring. Mit Bildern, entworfen und auf Stein gezeichnet von Carl Ens. Nebst einem Anhange. Berlin : G. Reimer, 1843. Square duodecimo (145 x 145 mm), publisher’s pictorial papered boards (toned and lightly foxed); pp. xii, 107, [1]; illustrated with [50] lithographed plates; scattered foxing, binding firm, a good example.

A rare collection of animal fables for children in verse form, written by August Gehring and accompanied by the striking illustrations of Carl Ens. The volume is dedicated by Gehring to the young Prince Karl Ernst von Schönburg-Waldenburg (1836-1915), but its content seems more likely to have given the poor lad nightmares than sweet dreams: although there are some illustrations of tender subjects, a two-part fable, Känguru-Jagd (Kangaroo Hunt) has two distressing depictions of a kangaroo being mercilessly pursued and cornered by hunters and their dogs, while other plates feature the graphic clubbing to death of an ostrich, the harpooning of a baby seal, and the trading of captive monkeys to European merchants.

Wegehaupt 715; Seebass II, 615; Strohbach, Fabeln, pp. 110-11; Klotz 1821 / 1

No examples traced in Australian libraries.