OBSERVATIONS SUR LE VOL DES OISEAUX DE PROIE… ACCOMPAGNÉES DE FIGURES, DESSINÉES PAR L’AUTEUR.

GENÈVE, Paul Barde, 1784.. FIRST EDITION 1784. 4to, approximately 245 x 190 mm, 9½ x 7 inches, 7 folding engraved plates, 52 pages, last page blank, bound in speckled boards, gilt lettered leather label to spine, pale blue endpapers. Slight rubbing to spine, all text pages have shallow creases (see attached images), tips of lower inner corners of plates clipped, not near illustrations (see images), pale browning to blank side of plates and a few margins, otherwise a very good copy. Jean Huber (1721 in Geneva – 1786 in Lausanne) was a Swiss painter, silhouettiste, soldier and author. Huber started painting without any training. He was a talented observer, and his first works were of horses and scenes of hunting, of birds in particular. In 1783 he published in the "Mercure de France" a "Note on the Way of Steering Balloons, based on the Flight of Birds of Prey", then in 1784, "Observations on the Flight of Birds of Prey" (Geneva 1784) with 7 plates designed by him. He was working on a "History of Birds of Prey" when he died (Wikipedia). See: Carl Schwerdt, Hunting, Hawking and Shooting, Volume 1, page 253; James Harting, Bibliotheca Accipitraria, A Catalogue of Books Anciant and Modern relating to Falconry, page 93, No. 182; Sotheby's, Bibliotheque Cynegetique du Verne, page 92, No. 132, 'A scarce and instructive treatise on flight of falcons and hawks'. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.