Details
NATURAL-HISTORY ALBUM -- "Abbildungen Naturhistorischer Gegenstaende von F. S.". Liegnitz: 1811.
4° (276 x 230mm). Manuscript title, lettered volume IV, 57 LEAVES OF WATERCOLOUR DRAWINGS, MAINLY OF FLOWERS AND BIRDS, most with several illustrations to a page, each figure captioned in Latin and German, some with Linnaean classifications. (Occasional marginal finger-soiling, a few leaves with upper margin just shaved, not affecting images, leaf 57 with two short tears at inner margin.) Contemporary half morocco (spine rubbed and torn at head and foot).
A charming album, densely-packed with illustrations of flowers (34 leaves), birds (17 leaves), fish (2 leaves), butterflies (1 leaf) and shells (3 leaves). Many of the subjects appear to have been copied from or inspired by published works, such as Jacquin's flower books, Frisch's Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes or Bloch's work on fish. Liegnitz, where the book was compiled, is the German name for Legnica, a town in south-east Poland, near the German border: in 1811 it would have fallen under either Austrian or, more likely, Prussian domination, which perhaps explains the use of the German place-name. Most of the specimens illustrated in the album would have been native.
4° (276 x 230mm). Manuscript title, lettered volume IV, 57 LEAVES OF WATERCOLOUR DRAWINGS, MAINLY OF FLOWERS AND BIRDS, most with several illustrations to a page, each figure captioned in Latin and German, some with Linnaean classifications. (Occasional marginal finger-soiling, a few leaves with upper margin just shaved, not affecting images, leaf 57 with two short tears at inner margin.) Contemporary half morocco (spine rubbed and torn at head and foot).
A charming album, densely-packed with illustrations of flowers (34 leaves), birds (17 leaves), fish (2 leaves), butterflies (1 leaf) and shells (3 leaves). Many of the subjects appear to have been copied from or inspired by published works, such as Jacquin's flower books, Frisch's Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes or Bloch's work on fish. Liegnitz, where the book was compiled, is the German name for Legnica, a town in south-east Poland, near the German border: in 1811 it would have fallen under either Austrian or, more likely, Prussian domination, which perhaps explains the use of the German place-name. Most of the specimens illustrated in the album would have been native.