Alpheraky, Sergius. The Geese of Europe and Asia. Being the description of most of the Old World species.
1st. Ed. Pub. Rowland Ward. 1905 pp.viii, 198 with 24 colour chromolithograph plates of geese and their bills by F.W. Frohawk and coloured frontispiece by Dr. P.P. Sushkin. Royal 4to. In original green cloth boards, lightly rubbed, o/w. thor. vg. Minor, scattered foxing to contents, which are o/w. in fine condition. TEG. Bookplate of Arthur B. Duncan to front paste-down. A very pleasing copy.
Dedication copy from Rowland Ward which reads ‘Captain Stanley Flower, with Rowland Ward[s] Kind Regards 1906’ to ffep. Captain Flower (1871-1946) was Director of the Cairo Zoological Gardens, Egypt between 1898 - 1924.
£495.00 [ref: 50785]

view all images for this item

Baker, E.C. Stuart. The Indian Ducks and their Allies.
1st. Ed. Pub. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 1908 pp.xii, 292 plus 30 hand-finished chromolithograph plates and additional illustrated title page. Imperial 8vo. Hardback. A minor amount of spotting, largely confined to text o/w. contents in fine condition. In original publishers binding of half morocco leather with green boards; spine gently and evenly faded o/w. in fine condition. Limited to 1,200 copies. A nice example.
Edward Charles Stuart Baker worked as a police officer in Assam. In his spare time, he studied and collected Indian birds. Through these pursuits he amassed nearly 50,000 birds eggs, some of which he donated to the Natural History Museum. The text is a mixture of anecdotes, references to the key people and works of the period and in-depth insight into the birds. The highly talented artists Gronvold, Lodge and Keulemans contributed the plates for this work.
£250.00 [ref: 34471]

view all images for this item

Bewick, Thomas. A General History of Quadrupeds.
4th. Ed. Pub. Newcastle upon Tyne. 1800 pp.[v], vi-x, 525, [i] page errata with woodcut engravings throughout. 8vo. Hardback. Contents very clean indeed and in very near fine condition. More recently rebound in full morocco leather with blind decoration to boards, lettered in gilt to spine, all in fine condition. Marbled end-papers with early bookplate to front pastedown. All edges marbled.
£275.00 [ref: 54210]

view all images for this item

Bewick, Thomas. History of British Birds.
2nd. Ed. Printed by Edward Walker for T. Bewick. 1805 Two volume set with wood engravings throughout. Large 8vo. Hardbacks. With bookplate of Thomas Holme Maude (1770-1849) to both volumes. Minor, scattered spotting, o/w. contents very bright and fine. Contemporary straight-grained half-morocco over marbled boards with matching end-papers; showing minor wear at top of spine of Vol. II, o/w. in thor. vg. condition.
A very pleasing large paper set. ‘The success of the ‘History of British Birds’ was immediate and complete; six editions were issued in Bewick’s lifetime’ (Mullens and Swann).
£800.00 [ref: 58669]

view all images for this item

Buchanan, Robert. The Life and Adventures of John James Audubon, the Naturalist. Edited, from materials collected by his widow.
1st. Ed. Pub. Sampson Low, London. 1868 pp.vii, 366, [1], 24 page publisher’s catalogue. 8vo. A small amount of foxing to last few pages of the publishers catalogue at rear of book, to the tissue guard facing the frontis. and to the fore-edges of the text block, o/w. contents very clean and in fine condition. In original green cloth boards, with gilt decoration and lettering to spine, all in thor. vg. condition. A thoroughly vg. copy of the 1st edition. Was £400.00.
£360.00 [ref: 47767]

view all images for this item

Butler Foreign Finches in Captivity.
1st. Ed. Pub. L. Reeve & Co. [1894] pp.[6], viii, 332 with 60 fine hand-coloured lithographs by F.W. Frohawk. Large 4to. Hardback. TEG. Very small number of spots to contents, o/w. exceptionally clean and fine. Contemporary three-quarter burgundy morocco over red cloth boards, gilt lettered to spine, in as close to fine condition as one is likely to find. A super copy.
This was Butler’s most important work and involved his favourite subject Cage Birds. Although some of the illustrations are not true finches the book does contain considerable information on their appearance, distribution, song and behaviour in captivity. The illustrations by Frohawk are some of his best and are outstanding.
£4,250.00 [ref: 62927]

view all images for this item

Butler, Arthur G. Birds of Great Britain and Ireland. Order Passeres.
1st. Ed. Pub. Brumby & Clarke. [1908] Two volumes with 107 chromolithograph plates of Birds and 8 of Eggs. Large 4to. Hardbacks. TEG. Occasional spotting, o/w. contents fine. Original quarter buckram over blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine in thor. vg. condition. From the library of Eric Hosking with his bookplate to front pastedown of both volumes. Comes with an original publisher’s 4-page advertisement for the work (in half-calf) which is the same size as the final work. It provides detailed information on the contributors, the cost, background to the work, a full description of the plates, lists the birds as they appear in each volume along with a full size colour plate of the Wheatear (by Gronvold) .
These volumes were superbly illustrated by H. Gronvold and F.W. Frohawk. Eric Hosking was ‘Perhaps the most famous bird photographer ever to have lived’ (Gemma Padley). Deservedly feted for his photographic skills, as with his many other talents, carried with modesty and charm Eric Hosking was, undeniably, a great gentle man of 20th century photography (John Chillingworth). Hosking was part of the New Naturalist Editorial Board and attended their first meeting in January 1943 where he would take on the role as photographic editor.
£425.00 [ref: 62001]

view all images for this item

Butler, Arthur G. British Birds with their Nest and Eggs.
1st. Ed. Pub. Brumby and Clarke. [1896-1899] Six volume set. With 24 colour chromolithograph plates of eggs (containing 475 figures) and 318 fine b/w. plates of birds by F.W. Frohawk. (4to.). Hardbacks. AEG. Two bookplates. Ownership insc. dated 1908 and small blind stamp with motto ‘Audaces Fortuna Juvat’ to title page Vol. I. Gold marbled end-papers. Any spotting very largely confined to tissue guards and blank verso of plates, o/w. contents fine. Original gilt decorated and lettered green cloth, a little dulled to rear board Vol. II, o/w. nr. fine. A very pleasing set.
£250.00 [ref: 63634]

Dobie, W. Henry. Birds of West Cheshire, Denbighshire, and Flintshire. Being a List of Species occurring in the District of the Chester Society of Natual History.
1st. Ed. Pub. Chester Soc. of Nat. Hist. 1893 pp.281-351 interleaved, and with fold-out map. 8vo. Bookplate. With letter from Dobie to Mr. [T.] Ruddy in which he presents this copy to Ruddy as a thank you for his significant contribution to the work. Further, in Dobie’s Acknowledgements, he thanks Ruddy for furnishing him with not only ‘notes of his own, but others of the late Mr. Beckwith, of Shrewsbury’. With Ruddy’s profuse notes (virtually doubling the size of the original text), detailing sightings, locations, habits and nests, throughout the work with entries dated between 1861 and 1910. Original cloth binding. A thor. vg. copy. A treasure trove and absolute gem.
Thomas Ruddy (1842-1912) was the first person to be apppinted Head Gardener at Pale Hall, near Bala in January 1869 and went on to become very well-respected and sought after within his profession. His life and work is well documented, not least in thanks to the fact that he kept a detailed journal. Dobie clearly held Ruddy in very high regard and wrote about him that ‘Mr. T. Ruddy, who, residing for more than twenty years at the Gardens, Pale, in the Upper Valley of the Dee, and in the centre of an interesting hill district, has given almost as much study to birds as to fossils’.
£725.00 [ref: 60793]

view all images for this item

Dunn, Robert. The Ornithologist’s Guide to The Islands of Orkney and Shetland.
1st. Ed. Pub. by the Author. 1837 pp.x, [2], 128 with lithographic plate and 2 folding maps. 8vo. With plate bound as frontis. Some foxing to plate and borders of maps, o/w. contents very clean and fine. Bound in original burgundy cloth boards, gently faded in places, with some wear to cloth on spine., o/w. vg.
This book describes Hull taxidermist and natural history dealer Robert Dunn’s visits to Orkney and Shetland in the years 1831-35, and includes a record of the birds he encountered. We no longer look on birds in the way that Dunn did - he was a serious collector of birds and their eggs. For the facsimile of this work, published by Peregrine Books (2007), Martin Limbert wrote that it is ‘a window into those times, an essential reference for anyone, whether birder, naturalist, historian or island-goer, interested in the Northern Isles of seventeen decades ago’.
£400.00 [ref: 55028]

view all images for this item