Skip to main content

Fine Editions Ltd

Fine Editions Ltd
Item #BB2326 [Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes. James BOLTON, d. 1799 bap. 1735.
[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes
[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes
[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes
[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes
[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes
[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes

[Ornithology] [Hand-Colored] Harmonia ruralis: or, An essay towards a natural history of British song birds: illustrated with figures, the size of life, of the birds, male and female, in their most natural attitudes

London: printed for W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1830. Quarter-Vellum. New (and preferred) Edition, "revised and very considerably augmented," of one of the most "luxurious" (Coues) eighteenth-century works on British song birds, with the hand-coloring "so much improved." (Jackson) Two volumes bound in one. Royal 4to (314 x 235 mm): xxiv,66; [2],96,[4]pp, with 81 beautifully hand-colored plates (including frontispiece) of male and female songbirds and their eggs and nests (41 of birds, 36 of nests and eggs, 4 portraying both), drawn and engraved by the author. Quarter vellum over blue paper-covered boards, original paper title label printed in black to spine. Volume I only with light (occasionally moderate) spotting throughout, few marginal chips to title label, but a superb example, tightly bound and generally clean throughout with vibrant hand-color. Sitwell, p. 78. Nissen IVB 115 (for first and Bohn editions). Zimmer I, p. 64 (Bohn edition). Jackson (Bird Etchings), pp.169-80. Mullens, pp. 23-24 (quoting Coues, "perhaps the most ornate, or luxurious, work on British Song Birds of the last [eighteenth] Century"). Fine. Item #BB2326

First published in two volumes, in 1794-96. This edition with a table compiled by Daines Barrington rating 17 different song birds for "mellowness of tone," "sprightly notes," "plaintive notes," "compass," and "execution," with the Nightingale ranking 19 out of 20 for four of the five categories. "Bolton is best remembered as the author of three major works, Filices Britannicae (2 vols., 1785–90), An History of Fungusses Growing about Halifax (3 vols., 1788–90; supplement, 1791), and Harmonia ruralis (2 vols., 1794–6), the illustrations to all of which he drew and etched himself." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $4,865.00

See all items in XIX CENTURY
See all items by ,