Description
LESSON (René-Primevère). Natural History of the Birds of Paradise and Epimics. Paris, Arthus Bertrand, sd [1834]. In-8, red morocco, smooth spine finely decorated with gilt fillets and interlacing, gilt title, beautiful framing of multiple gilt fillets and fleurons in spandrels on the boards, roulette on the corners and the endpapers, gilt edges (period binding by Bunetier). Complete with 43 finely watercolored plates. Some rubbing, corners worn. Some foxing to the text leaves, plates slightly browned overall, spines foxed. Apart from these defects of the time, a fine copy in a signed morocco binding. René-Primevère Lesson (1794-1849) was the first scientist to observe the birds of paradise in the Moluccas and in New Guinea. French surgeon and ornithologist, he left with Duperrey as naturalist of the ship "La Coquille" during the 1822-1825 round-the-world campaign. They anchored in Tahiti, Bora-Bora, the Falklands, New Zealand, New Guinea, Java, Mauritius, Bourbon... "From the first days of our arrival in New Guinea, this land of promission of naturalists, we saw the emerald birds flying in these old forests, daughters of time, whose dark depth is perhaps the most magical and the most pompous spectacle that can strike the eyes of a European. These birds struck the air with grace and undulations: the feathers of their flanks formed a graceful and airy plume which, without hyperbole, did not badly resemble a brilliant meteor, shooting through the air in a star." (Handbook of Ornithology, 1828, II, 356-355).
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LESSON (René-Primevère). Natural History of the Birds of Paradise and Epimics. Paris, Arthus Bertrand, sd [1834]. In-8, red morocco, smooth spine finely decorated with gilt fillets and interlacing, gilt title, beautiful framing of multiple gilt fillets and fleurons in spandrels on the boards, roulette on the corners and the endpapers, gilt edges (period binding by Bunetier). Complete with 43 finely watercolored plates. Some rubbing, corners worn. Some foxing to the text leaves, plates slightly browned overall, spines foxed. Apart from these defects of the time, a fine copy in a signed morocco binding. René-Primevère Lesson (1794-1849) was the first scientist to observe the birds of paradise in the Moluccas and in New Guinea. French surgeon and ornithologist, he left with Duperrey as naturalist of the ship "La Coquille" during the 1822-1825 round-the-world campaign. They anchored in Tahiti, Bora-Bora, the Falklands, New Zealand, New Guinea, Java, Mauritius, Bourbon... "From the first days of our arrival in New Guinea, this land of promission of naturalists, we saw the emerald birds flying in these old forests, daughters of time, whose dark depth is perhaps the most magical and the most pompous spectacle that can strike the eyes of a European. These birds struck the air with grace and undulations: the feathers of their flanks formed a graceful and airy plume which, without hyperbole, did not badly resemble a brilliant meteor, shooting through the air in a star." (Handbook of Ornithology, 1828, II, 356-355).
