The Natural History of the Birds of Western Africa. Vols I & II. The Naturalist's Library. Ornithology, Vol VII & VIII

William Swainson, Sir William Jardine - editor

Published by W H LIZARS, EDINBURGH, 1837

A good copy of the 1st edition of The Birds of Western Africa, in 2 volumes in contemporary half leather binding with 64 hand coloured plates. The bindings are clean and sound. The spines have gilt lined raised bands forming 5 compartments - two of which had labels (now missing), with the remaining ones having a cross hatched impressed design. There is wear to spine ends, joints and corners with some leather loss at the corners and a small split at the front top spine joint in both volumes (1 cm Vol I, 0.5 cm in Vol II). The cloth sides have fading to edges and there is a small pale mark to the front board of Vol II. Both volumes have the signature of A Shafto Barthropp to the fep and Vol I has an armorial bookplate of Sidney Wentworth upside down on the rear pastedown. Contents: Vol I: half title; black and white frontispiece portrait of Bruce with tissue guard; hand coloured vignette title page; 2 further title pages; advert; contents listing; Memoir of Bruce; text with black and white illustrations and 32 hand coloured plates; and a publisher's listing.286pp. Vol II: half title; frontispiece portrait of Le Vaillant with tissue guard; hand coloured vignette title page; 2 further title pages; text with black and white illustrations and 32 hand coloured plates. 263 pp. The contents are very clean with bright text and plate paper. There is occasional spotting: Vol I - endpapers, tissue guards and final plate (one large pale spot); Vol II - tissue guards - generally at the edge - two are completely browned, vignette title, some plates at the page edge. Please enquire if you would like to see additional images. Seller Inventory # 033338

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Natural History of the Birds of Western ...
Publisher: W H LIZARS, EDINBURGH
Publication Date: 1837
Binding: Half-Leather
Illustrator: William Swainson
Condition: Good
Edition: 1st Edition