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Largest assembly of natural history illustrations published before the 18th century

ALDROVANDI (ALDOVANDUS), Ulisse. [Opera omnia].
Bologna, 1599-1668. 13 volumes. Folio (35 x 24 cm). With engraved title-page to each volume, engraved full-page portrait of Aldrovandi in 3 volumes and several thousand woodcut illustrations in text, mostly after designs by J. Ligozzi and many full-page. Blind-tooled vellum (ca. 1645 & ca. 1670), with a large centrepiece on each board (the 11 volumes dated 1599-1642 from a single block; the 2 volumes dated 1648 & 1667 from a different block), the spines uniformly gold-tooled in the 18th-century. Full description
€ 150,000
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Encyclopaedic work on horses with movable anatomical plates

ALIX, Eugène and Édouard CUYER. Le cheval extérieur ...
Paris, J-B. Baillière & Sons, 1886. 2 volumes. 4to. With 16 lithographed plates in the atlas volume showing the anatomy of horses, including 13 with movable parts, all in colour, the text volume contains 172 illustrations in the text by Édouard Cuyer. Contemporary half blue calf (or sheepskin?), marbled sides, with the title lettered in gold on the spine. XXIV, 703, [1 blank]; 44, [4] pp. and 16 lithographed plates. Full description
€ 2,500
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First edition of Audubon's extraordinary coloured plates of quadrupeds

AUDUBON, John James. The viviparous quadrupeds of North America.
New York, John James Audubon, 1845-1848. 3 volumes. Large 1mo (70×55 cm). With 150 striking coloured plates, all lithographed on stone, printed and coloured by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia, after drawings by after John James and John Woodhouse Audubon, and the backgrounds after Victor Audubon. Each volume also with a title-page and a list of contents. Late 19th-century black morocco. Full description
€ 600,000
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“to this day a major source of information about the land and peoples of Paraguay and Río de la Plata”

AZARA, Félix Manuel de. Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale, ... depuis 1781 jusqu'en 1801; contenant la description géographique, politique et civile du Paraguay et de la rivière de La Plata; ...
Paris, Dentu, 1809. 8vo (4 text volumes) and folio (1 atlas volume). With 3 folding tables and 25 engraved maps, plans, views and plates of animals and birds. Modern black half calf, gold-tooled spine. LX, 389; [4], 388-562; [4], II, 479; [4], 380 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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87 beautiful views of bovine animals, bound for presentation to the French Ministry of Agriculture

BAUDEMENT, Émile. Les races bovines. Études zootechniques.
Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, [1864]. 2 volumes (text & plates). Oblong folio (36 x 49.5 cm). With 5 hand coloured maps and 87 numbered plates. Contemporary red half morocco, gold-tooled spine, gold-blocked boards with the note "offert par le Minstre de l'Agriculture", gilt edges. [6], LXXIV, [2]; [4], [10] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
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Fascinating large watercolour of an African lion by a well-known 19th-century French nature draughtsman

BEVALET, Antoine Germain. Lion dAfrique.
[France], 1839. Ca. 65 x 81 cm. Watercolour and ink drawing on wove paper (with a part of an unidentified watermark ["igant & C"] in the upper right corner). Titled Lion dAfrique, signed "Bevalet" and dated "1839" in black ink in the lower part. Full description
€ 6,500
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First general systematic treatise on comparative anatomy

BLASIUS, Gerard. Anatome animalium, terrestrium variorum, volatilium, aquatilium, serpentum, insectorum, ovorumque, structuram naturalem ex veterum, recentiorum, propriisque observationibus proponens, figuris variis illustrata.
Amsterdam, J. van Someren, 1681. 4to. With engraved frontispiece by Jan Luyken, and 60 numbered and 5 unnumbered engraved plates. Contemporary vellum. [8], 496 pp. Full description
€ 1,250
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First edition of Brodtmann's zoological series containing 144 lithographed plates, seldom found complete

BRODTMANN, Karl Joseph. Naturhistorische Bilder-Gallerie aus dem Thierreiche.
[Zurich or Schaffhausen?], Brodtmann, [1816 and later] (title-page of the "ersten Heft": Lindau, 1816). Heft 1-33 including the supplements, bound in 1 volume. Large folio (46 x 38 cm). With a lithographed title-page and 144 lithographs drawn by Brodtmann himself showing humans, other mammals, reptiles and amphibians, birds, insects, etc. 19th-century brown marbled paper over boards. [8] (title and index) ll.; 36 (Heft 1-18); 16 (Heft 26-33); 6 (Heft 19-21); 10 (Heft 22-25); 4 (Supplement) pp. Full description
€ 18,500
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Encyclopediaedic work describing everything known about the natural world

BUFFON, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de. Oeuvres complètes de Buffon, suivies de ses continuateurs Daubenton, Lacépède, Cuvier, Duméril, Poiret, Lesson et Geoffroy-St-Hilaire.
Brussels, Th. Lejeune, 1828-1830. 14 volumes. Large 8vo (24 x 16 cm). With lithographed frontispiece portrait of the author, lithographed portrait of Daubenton, 2 lithographed emblematic frontispieces, 2 lithographed double-page maps, 6 numbered lithographed plates of teeth, 16 numbered lithographed plates of scientific instruments and apparatus, and 6 numbered lithographed plates of seeds in the first 4 introductory volumes, lithographed frontispieces of a naked man, woman and child, and 26 lithographed plates of human heads and species, of which 10 are nicely coloured by hand in volume 5 on the natural history of man, illustrations of mammals and mammalian anatomy on 469 lithographed plates, of which 226 coloured by hand in volumes 6 to 10, and illustrations of birds on 210 lithographed plates, all beautifully coloured by hand and several heightened with gold in volumes 11 to 14.
Contemporary gold-tooled half red half morocco, marbled paper sides, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. Each volume ca. 500 pp. Full description
€ 5,550
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