Gowans's Nature Books 1-9, 12, 15-16, 19, 24, 27, 28, 29

Description:

Collection of 17 volumes of 29? Includes No. 1 Wild Birds at Home, 1905 reprint, photographs by C. Kirk; No. 2 Wild Flowers at Home (First Series), 1909 photographs by Cameron Todd; No. 3 Wild Flowers (Second Series), 1908 photographs by Cameron Todd; No. 4 Butterflies and Moths at Home, May 1907 reprint, photographs by A. Forrester; No. 5 Wild Birds at Home (Second Series),1906 by C. Kirk; No. 6 Freshwater Fishes, 1906 photographs by Walford B. Johnson and Stanley C. Johnson; No. 7 Toadstools at Home, May 1907 reprint, photographs by Somerville Hastings; No. 8 Our Trees and how to know them, 1909 reprint, photographs by C.Kirk; No. 9 Wild Flowers at Home (Third Series), April 1907 reprint, photographs by Somerville Hastings; No. 12 Sea-shore life, 1907, photographs by Walford B. Johnson and Stanley C. Johnson; No. 15 Some moths and butterflies and their Eggs, 1907, photographs by A.E. Tonge; No. 16 Wild Flowers at Home (Fourth Series) 2nd edition 1911, photographs by Somerville Hastings; No. 19 Wild Birds at Home (Third Series), 1909, photographs by C. Kirk; No. 24 Wild Birds at Home (Fourth Series) 1912, photographs by Peter Webster; No. 27 Birds at the Zoo (Second Series), 1914 photographs by W.S. Berridge; No. 28 Birds at the Zoo (Second Series) 1912, W.S. Berridge; No. 29 Wild Birds at Home (Fifth Series), 1911, photographs by Arthur Brook. A delightful series of small pocket-sized introductory natural history books, each illustrated with about 60 photographic images. Published by the Scottish company Gowans & Gray, these influential publishers produced a number of different series on different subjects during the heyday of the Glasgow Style of art. Published under the direction of Adam Luke Gowans (1871-1958) who in 1944 was appointed head librarian the Glasgow School of Art. An advertisement states ‘The object of these little books is to awaken an interest in the wonders and beauties of Nature, and to stimulate a desire to study it.’ Issued in attractive parchment like wrappers, Gowans employed the well-known Glasgow School artist Jessie Marion King (1875-1949) to illustrate two of the covers in this series, Our Trees and How to Know Them, and Our Flowering Shrubs, and commissioned the artist Stephen Reid (1873-1948) to illustrate, Sea-shore Life.

Condition

17 vols, small 8vo (145x99mm), orig. card covers with printed parchment wrappers, somewhat browned, as usual, a few chipped. Good.