Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles: Planches Zoologie: Mammifères, Ornithologie

Very good set of the Mammals and Birds volumes from Cuvier's huge Dictionary of Natural Sciences bound in one

Complete with all 100 engraved plates of mammals and 119 engraved plates of birds

Animals include the extinct quagga and white-fronted icterus. Birds include the extinct orange-wattled kokako, Alagoas curassow and Cuban red macaw.

All the illustrations by Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, under the direction of Pierre Jean François Turpin, and engraved by Louis Massard, his wife Madame Massard and daughter Mademoiselle Massard, Mademoiselle Coignet, Rebel and his wife Madame Rebel, Carnonkel, David, Victor, Guyard, Plee, Bourey, etc.

Part 1 Mammifères: Title page, 13pp (table of plates, index), 100 engraved plates; Part 2 Ornithologie: Title page, 16pp (table of plates, index), 119 engraved plates.

Part of Cuvier's massive Dictionary of Natural Sciences that was published in 60 text volumes and 13 plate volumes from 1816 to 1830.

Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (1768-1849) was a Swiss-French natural history painter who illustrated a large number of books for Cuvier, Louis Pierre Vieillot, René Primevère Lesson, Comte de Lacépède, Richard Achille, and many other French zoologists.

Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775-1840) was a French botanist and illustrator. He is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators during the Napoleonic Era and after.

Half brown leather with gilt title, spine rubbed, red cloth boards stained and scratched, marble endpapers, book block solid. All plates mounted on hinges, text and plates with foxing and spotting to edges, pencil numbers to all plates, but engravings very crisp and sharp.

Good uncoloured set of this increasingly rare series by two giants of natural history illustration.