Oiseaux Dorés ou a Reflets Métalliques.

£38,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

captions in gold First edition of 'one of the most beautiful books of its era', one of 200 copies in large folio with the captions printed in gold (Fine Bird Books 73). Uncut and wide-margined, with 190 fine colour-printed engraved plates, partly finished by hand and many heightened with gold. Jean-Baptiste Audebert (1759-1800) was originally a miniature painter before developing a passion for natural history. His first book, Histoire naturelle des singes, on monkeys, appeared in 1800, and he also contributed to the travel narrative Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse. The present work was not fully published at his death, and was completed by the ornithologist Louis Pierre Viellot (1748-1830), who worked from Audebert's notes. The colour printing technique used here was developed by Audebert himself. 'The colours of the birds and their handsome appearance have evidently been the cause of their selection for inclusion in the book. The plates with the bird portraits are in beautiful colours; in this respect they are among the best colour prints found in ornithology' (Anker, Bird Books and Bird Art 14). 'Color printing was introduced into ornithological illustration by Jean Baptiste Audebert, who was employed as a draftsman by the wealthy natural history collector Gigot d'Orex. He usually engraved and printed his illustrations himself, so that in this respect they are probably the most perfect. Above all, his 'Oiseaux dorés' (Golden Birds), the first magnificent dep

• Binding: Hardcover

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