[NATURAL HISTORY - ORNITHOLOGY] - KNIP (Madame, née Pauline de Courcelles) - THEMMINCK (Coenrad Jacob) - Les pigeons - Paris ; Mme Knip, Garnery, 1811 - Volume I alone in 2 volumes large In-folio - Scattered foxing, pronounced on the serpents, 1 marginal wetness on the outer margin of the 2nd volume, discharges on the backs of the plates - Work divided into 3 parts: Les colombars (11 plates), les colombes (60 plates), les colombis-gallines (16 plates), that is 87 beautiful plates engraved by César Macret, François Jacques Dequevauvillier and Jean-Baptiste Guyard, printed in colors by Millevoy, Gobry or Saunier, Each plate is followed or preceded by a black suite (174 plates in total) - Bound in contemporary long-grained cherry half morocco (minor rubbing) - Spines decorated with gold fillets and titles - First edition of this rare work, the most beautiful published on pigeons. "Pauline de Courcelles, who married the Dutch painter-engraver Auguste Knip, specialized in bird figures; her paintings were highly acclaimed between 1808 and 1814 at the various Paris art shows. She also worked on porcelain at the Manufacture de Sèvres, always using birds as models, but she owes her fame especially to the 87 beautiful plates which adorn the Histoire Naturelle générale des Pigeons (Paris, 1808, in-folio), by C. J. Temminck, and which were "engraved, printed and retouched under her direction"... A suite of new plates and a text by Florent Prévost appeared for the second volume... (in this volume), the first eight plates only are printed in colors, retouched and engraved by Dequevauvilliers (or Dequevauviller) and Guyard. The others are lithographed, carefully hand-painted, and do not bear the names of the engravers. It goes without saying that these large folios, if they have reached prices unimaginable today, were also very expensive at the time of their publication and only a privileged few could acquire them [...]" (Ronsil, L'Art français dans le livre d'oiseaux, pages 40-41). Reference: Brunet, V, 694.