Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets (Limited Deluxe Facsimile Edition)

A$5,200 · Offered by Harry Hartog Rare Books

Modern facsimile edition limited to 200 numbered copies. Elephant folio. Two volumes containing 144 hand-finished colour plates after Jacques Barraband, loose as issued. Housed in publisher's handsome green cloth Solander boxes with printed colour labels to covers. A magnificent modern reproduction of one of the supreme achievements of early nineteenth-century ornithological illustration. François Levaillant's Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, originally published in Paris by Levrault between 1801 and 1805, stands alongside Audubon's Birds of America as one of the most celebrated bird books ever produced. The work was part of Napoleon's deliberate cultural policy to create sumptuous scientific publications that would rival those commissioned by Louis XIV, distributed as imperial gifts to crowned heads, scientists, and learned institutions across Europe. The plates were drawn by Jacques Barraband (1767-1809), widely regarded as the finest ornithological artist of his era. Working from preserved specimens in Levaillant's collection, Barraband created watercolor and gouache paintings of extraordinary accuracy and beauty. The master printer Langlois developed the innovative à la poupée color printing technique specifically for this work, applying multiple colors to a single plate before printing, then finishing each impression by hand. The result, as contemporary observers noted, produced "the most lifelike renderings of birds ever made." This facsimile edition was produced to t

• Binding: Hardcover

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