Search Results: Natural History from Donald Heald Rare Books

[London, 1780. Watercolour and gouache drawing, on laid paper. Inscribed on verso "By Paillou / Given me by Mr. More" Peter Paillou was a British painter best known for his works of natural history. He worked for two leading 18th-century naturalists, Taylor White and Thomas Pennant, painting bird pictures, many of which were engraved and used as plates in Pennant's books.

New York: John James Audubon, 1849. First edition hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen of Philadelphia after John James Audubon. Sheet: (22 x 28 inches). An iconic image of Western Americana from the folio first edition of Audubon's "Quadrupeds of North America," the greatest work of natural history illustration produced in America during the nineteenth century: "As long as our civilization lasts, America will be in debt to this genius." [Peterson] This fine plate is from the folio edition of Audubon's The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was produced entirely in the United States. The work was Audubon's last, and by 1846 he had to hand over the drawing of the final fifty plates to his sons, John Woodhouse and Victor Audubon. The production of the Quadrupeds was begun by Audubon and his sons at about the same time as the commercially-successful octavo edition of The Birds of America. Unlike the double-elephant folio, the Quadrupeds was produced entirely in the United States. Reese… Read More

New York: John James Audubon, 1849. First edition hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bown of Philadelphia after John James Audubon. Sheet: (21 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches). An iconic image of Western Americana from the folio first edition of Audubon's "Quadrupeds of North America," the greatest work of natural history illustration produced in America during the nineteenth century: "As long as our civilization lasts, America will be in debt to this genius." [Peterson] This fine plate is from the folio edition of Audubon's The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was produced entirely in the United States. The work was Audubon's last, and by 1846 he had to hand over the drawing of the final fifty plates to his sons, John Woodhouse and Victor Audubon. The final parts of this work of national importance were published after his death in 1851, but the images remain a fitting memorial to the greatest American wildlife artist. The production of the Quadrupeds was begun by Audubon and his sons at about the… Read More

Philadelphia: Vols. I-VI by Bradford and Inskeep, printed by Robert and William Carr; Vols. VII-IX by Samuel F. Bradford, printed by Thomas H. Palmer, 1825. 9 Volumes. Folio. (13 5/8 x 10 1/2 inches). Vol. I: vi, 157 pp. Vol. II: xii, 167 pp. Vol. III: xvi, 120 pp. Vol. IV: xii, 100 pp. Vol. V: xx, 102 pp. Vol. VI: xii, 122 pp. Vol. VII: xii, 138 pp. Vol. VIII: xi, 162 pp. Vol. IX: ccxxiii, 224-298 pp. 76 hand-colored copper engravings, all after Wilson, heightened with gum arabic, 9 in each of the first eight volumes, 4 in the final volume, accompanied by an expanded version of Ord's "Life of Wilson" biography. Uniform contemporary red half morocco with jade marbled boards, five raised bands ruled gilt forming six compartments on spine with gilt-lettered titling in second compartment, volume number in fourth, and gilt foliate printer's device in rest, Volume IX expertly rebacked with the original spine laid down A complete copy of the most important work on American ornithology published before… Read More

London, 1754. Hand-coloured copper engraving, on laid paper. Very good condition. A fine image from Catesby's 'The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands', "the most famous colour-plate book of American plant and animal life...a fundamental and original work for the study of American species." (Hunt) Catesby's Natural History is a vibrant and original work in which each plate seems to have been created without preconception or habitual form, embodying wit and the love every true naturalist feels for nature's beings. Far from being a mere animal and plant identification book, this is a testament to the glory of nature and life. The White-cheeked Pintail or Bahama Pintail is the northernmost subspecies of this handsome duck, which is found in Florida as well as the Bahamas, and in Trinidad and Tobago, and parts of South America. Trained as a botanist, Catesby travelled to Virginia in 1712 and remained there for seven years, sending back to England collections of plants and seeds.… Read More

London: J. Purser for the Author, 1766. Large oblong folio. (18 1/16 x 23 1/2 inches). On laid paper with text and plates mounted on guards throughout. 24 etched plates all by Stubbs. Expertly bound to style in 18th-century half Russia over 18th-century marbled paper-covered boards, spine gilt in seven compartments with raised bands, red Morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, the others with elaborate overall repeat decoration built up from various small tools. (Some expert restoration). "A landmark in the history both of anatomy and art." (Ray). First edition, first or early issue on laid paper. One of a select group of books which can be said to have "revolutionized men's understanding of the natural world" (Lennox-Boyd). The etchings have a "fine exactness and austere beauty" that "give them a timeless beauty" (Ray). The desirability of this work is vastly increased if the plates are printed on the thick laid paper, used for the 1766 first issue and for most other copies published… Read More

London: J.Purser for the Author, 1766. Oblong imperial broadsheets (entirely uncut). (19 1/2 x 23 1/4 inches). (2) 47pp. Rare errata leaf pasted onto endpaper. 24 etched plates all by Stubbs. Half calf over gray boards to style, gilt morocco label to upper cover, raised bands, gilt title on label. First edition, on laid paper throughout. A landmark work of equine anatomy. One of a select group of books which can be said to have 'revolutionised men's understanding of the natural world' (Lennox-Boyd). The etchings have a 'fine exactness and austere beauty' that 'give them a timeless beauty' (Ray). The desirability of this work is vastly increased if the plates are on thick laid paper, used for the 1766 first edition. First edition early printings from the plates shows a precision that later impressions, printed on wove paper, cannot match. Examples on laid paper are increasingly difficult to find - even the Duke of Gloucester's copy (sold for over $34,000 at auction in 2006) was printed on wove… Read More

London: Printed by McLean & Co, 1850. Drawing and Hand-coloured lithograph by Hawkins. A fine plate from John Edward Gray's "Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley," a comprehensive visual survey of one of the largest private menagerie's in Victorian England. Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851) was a learned naturalist, who pursued his avid interest in zoology after a brief and unfulfilling political career. In addition to his frequent contributions to the Zoological Society's journal Proceedings, Stanley served as president of the Linnaean Society from 1828 to 1833 and, towards the end of his life, as president of the Zoological Society. He is probably best known, however, for the extensive menagerie of birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, and fish that he founded on his family estate of Knowsley outside of Liverpool. Stanley invested a significant amount of his fortune maintaining the menagerie and adding to the impressive collection of specimens housed in its zoological museum. He… Read More

London: Printed by McLean & Co, 1850. Hand-coloured lithograph by Waterhouse Hawkins. Very good condition. A fine plate from John Edward Gray's "Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley," a comprehensive visual survey of one of the largest private menagerie's in Victorian England. Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851) was a learned naturalist, who pursued his avid interest in zoology after a brief and unfulfilling political career. In addition to his frequent contributions to the Zoological Society's journal Proceedings, Stanley served as president of the Linnaean Society from 1828 to 1833 and, towards the end of his life, as president of the Zoological Society. He is probably best known, however, for the extensive menagerie of birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, and fish that he founded on his family estate of Knowsley outside of Liverpool. Stanley invested a significant amount of his fortune maintaining the menagerie and adding to the impressive collection of specimens housed in its… Read More

Philadelphia: Published by the author, 1889. 8vo. (9 1/4 x 6 inches). [8], 231pp. 10 phototype plates of scenes in Bermuda and 9 lithographs of marine subjects. Red publisher's cloth, title stamped in gilt on front cover and spine. Provenance: Samuel Kenshaw (bookplate and signature dated "Dec 25, 1890" on front flyleaf) An early work on the natural history of Bermuda. This work includes chapters on geology, fauna, mollusca, and zoology of Bermuda, with an emphasis on coral reefs. Angelo Heilprin was a Hungarian-American geologist, paleontologist, naturalist, and explorer who is most notable for taking part in the 1891-1892 Peary expedition to Greenland and for his initial study of the 1902 eruption of Montagne Pelée in Martinique. He completed his education in Europe and held academic positions at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where he was also a curator at their museum, the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia, and the Department of Physical Geography at Yale… Read More

New York: John James Audubon, 1845. Hand-colored lithograph by J. T. Bowen of Philadelphia after Audubon. Sheet: (21 1/4 x 27 inches). The Black American Wolf from the first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds, the greatest 19th-century illustrated natural history work to be produced in America: "As long as our civilization lasts, America will be in debt to this genius." [Peterson] The Black Wolf, a color variety of the Red Wolf, is now supposedly extinct east of the Mississippi River. Its former range included much of the central and southeastern United States. "Once when we were traveling on foot not far from the southern boundary of Kentucky, we fell in with a Black Wolf following a man with a rifle on his shoulders. The man assured us it was as gentle as any dog, and that he had never met with a dog that could trail a Deer better. We were so much struck with this and the Wolf's noble appearance that we offered a hundred dollars for it, but the owner would not part with it for any price." [Audubon]… Read More

London: Printed by McLean & Co, 1850. Drawing and Hand-coloured lithograph by Waterhouse Hawkins. A fine plate from John Edward Gray's "Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley," a comprehensive visual survey of one of the largest private menagerie's in Victorian England. Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851) was a learned naturalist, who pursued his avid interest in zoology after a brief and unfulfilling political career. In addition to his frequent contributions to the Zoological Society's journal Proceedings, Stanley served as president of the Linnaean Society from 1828 to 1833 and, towards the end of his life, as president of the Zoological Society. He is probably best known, however, for the extensive menagerie of birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, and fish that he founded on his family estate of Knowsley outside of Liverpool. Stanley invested a significant amount of his fortune maintaining the menagerie and adding to the impressive collection of specimens housed in its zoological… Read More

London: R. Taylor, 1806. 12 parts in one vol. 8vo. vi, 138 pp. 76 hand-colored plates (two folding). Uncut. Original blue paper lettered parts wrappers bound in the rear. Modern half calf and marbled paper covered boards. With beautifully hand colored plates of unusual British birds, insects and animals. A rare work by Sowerby, illustrating and describing unusual specimens found in Great Britain from his own collection, including birds, fish, butterflies, insects, mollusc, shells, snakes and more. Among the more unusual is an image of a narwhal, found on the coast at Friestone. Published in 12 parts, each containing 8 plates, at 5s. per number, the work was issued in part to promote Sowerby's collecting interests, with advertisements on the wrappers to send notice of unusual specimens. Anker 480; Wood 579; Nissen ZBI 3916.

London: John Van Voorst, 1869. 8vo, 5 vols. (7 9/16 x 5 inches). [114], 341pp.; [14], 465; 393; 486; 258pp. With 5 hand-coloured lithographed frontispieces and 142 lithographed plates (including 102 hand-coloured). Uniformly bound in publisher's brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt. First edition of this extensive and beautifully-illustrated book on British shells by a noted conchologist. John Gwyn Jeffreys was born and educated in Swansea, Wales, where he became an apprentice to one of the principal solicitors at the age of seventeen. He worked as a solicitor in Swansea until 1856 when he was called to the bar in London. Outside of his profession, Jeffreys was extremely passionate about conchology and began building his collection as early as ten years old, from shells at Swansea Bay. In 1840, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and was also Treasurer of the Linnean Society of London and Geological Society of London for many years. After he retired from the law, Jeffreys became one of the… Read More

Philadelphia: J. and T. Doughty, 1833. Quarto. Three volumes. vii, [1], 298, [2]; vii, [3], 292; 96pp. Text in two columns. Three uncolored steel-engraved titles with vignettes, two uncolored steel-engraved portrait frontispieces, and fifty-seven plates (three uncolored). Contemporary three-quarter dark green morocco and marbled boards, spines gilt; volume three rebound to style in a modern binding. Extremities lightly worn; head of spine on second volume slightly chipped. Bookplate on front pastedowns of first two volumes. First major American color plate sporting book and the first major book of any kind with colored lithographic plates printed in America A scarce complete set of the American Rural Sports containing the "first colored sporting prints made in America" (Henderson), including twenty-three original lithographs by Thomas Doughty, the founding father of the Hudson River School. The Cabinet of Natural History, "an amalgam of natural history, sporting accounts, travel narratives, and… Read More

Paris: Printed by Langlois, 1800. Rare colour-printed copper engraving, on wove paper. Very good condition apart from some overall light soiling, minor foxing, and a tiny nick at the edge of the right margin. A beautiful plate with stunning early colour, from Lacépède's "La Menagerie du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle," an important scholarly work and one of the finest examples of eighteenth-century French natural history illustration. A professor of zoology at the Museum of Natural History, the French naturalist Bernard-Germain-Étienne Delaville, Comte de Lacépède (1756-1825) was a versatile and precocious scholar who published a number of books on zoology, physics, and music. He was greatly influenced by the pioneering naturalist Georges Louis Marie Leclerc, comte de Buffon, whom he succeeded as Intendant at the Jardin du Roi, which later became the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in 1793. During his tenure, Lacépède completed a comprehensive study of amphibians and reptiles, Historie… Read More

[London: Printed by and for J. Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1813. Folio. (19 1/2 x 12 inches). Text in two columns. iv, 110pp. Engraved portrait, 24 engraved plates on 13 sheets. Uncut. Some foxing. Later cloth-backed grey paper boards. Large-paper issue of the first illustrated edition of a rare catalogue of British birds, plants and shells. Richard Pulteney received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1764, before serving as the personal physician to the Earl of Bath. Following the Earl's death, he resided and practiced in Blandford, Dorset. Besides membership in a host of medical societies, Pulteney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, as well as a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Indeed, he was an early promoter of Linnaean taxonomy, and authored the first English biography of Linnaeus in 1781. His cabinet of specimens, noted particularly for its shells, was donated to the Linnean Society following his death in 1801. The first edition of 1799 was privately-published… Read More

[London: Printed by and for J. Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1813. Folio. (19 1/2 x 12 inches). Text in two columns. iv, 110pp. Engraved portrait, 24 engraved plates on 13 sheets. Uncut. Contemporary boards, expertly rebacked to style with period paper Large-paper issue of the first illustrated edition of a rare catalogue of British birds, plants and shells. Richard Pulteney received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1764, before serving as the personal physician to the Earl of Bath. Following the Earl's death, he resided and practiced in Blandford, Dorset. Besides membership in a host of medical societies, Pulteney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, as well as a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Indeed, he was an early promoter of Linnaean taxonomy, and authored the first English biography of Linnaeus in 1781. His cabinet of specimens, noted particularly for its shells, was donated to the Linnean Society following his death in 1801. The first edition of 1799 was… Read More

New York: John James Audubon, 1847. Hand-colored lithograph by J. T. Bowen of Philadelphia after Audubon. Sheet: (20 1/2 x 26 3/4 inches). "As long as our civilization lasts, America will be in debt to this genius." [Peterson] "This beautiful Deer is found variously dispersed over the western portions of the North American continent, where it was first noticed by Lewis and Clark, near the mouth of the Columbia River; but not until the discovery of the golden treasures of California did it become generally known to white men." [Audubon] They are a subspecies of the Mule Deer, the difference being in the tail. Together, they are still found throughout much of the West. The Black-tailed Deer are common in Northern California but generally inhabit the Northern Pacific region. This fine plate is from the folio edition of Audubon's The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, produced entirely in the United States. The work was to be Audubon's last, and by 1846 he had to hand over the drawing of the last… Read More

New York: John James Audubon, 1845. Hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen of Philadelphia after a watercolor from nature by Audubon. Sheet: (21 1/2 x 27 3/8 inches). A sublime image of a bobcat from the greatest 19th-century work of natural history illustration produced in America, Audubon's "Viviparous Quadrupeds." This fine plate is from the Imperial folio edition of Audubon's The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was produced entirely in the United States. The American Wild-Cat was the first plate produced for the book and it reflects Audubon's unerring sense of the dramatic. This is the Wild-Cat as he is encountered: fierce, ready to attack, and fearsomely beautiful. This first plate also demonstrates an aspect of the work not often acknowledged: Audubon had been persuaded to produce the prints using lithography rather than copperplate etching, as in The Birds of America, by John T. Bowen, who guaranteed that the fur of the animals depicted would be as fine as they would have been… Read More