The Song Birds of Great Britain; containing delineations of thirty-three birds, of the natural size, (including the genus Sylvia of Latham,) coloured principally from living specimens

Description:

with some account of their habits, and occasional directions for their treatment in confinement. First edition, second issue - the first issue of both parts together, with cancel title-page (Part I had been previously issued under the title The Resident Song Birds of Great Britain in 1835. (The complete work was also reprinted in 1838). Rare in any form as it was published privately in small numbers. Life-size, finely hand-coloured plates, some heightened with gum arabic. Unpaginated: Title page and Prefaces [12pp], Contents page for part 1, The Resident Song Birds of Great Britain, 68 pages of letterpress with 17 plates; Contents page for part 2, The Summer Migrant Song Birds of Great Britain, 54 pages of letterpress with 16 plates.

Song Birds, of which only a few copies were printed for private circulation, is a work of the utmost rarity in its complete state, and is moreover much esteemed for the fidelity and beauty of its life-size hand-coloured plates' (Mullens & Swann).

John Cotton (1801-1849) was a British poet, ornithological writer and artist, who emigrated to Australia in 1843. From 1844 he began preparing sketches of birds for a book on the birds of Port Phillip, but these remained unpublished at the time of his death, finally being published over 120 years later in 1974.

Anker p. 59; Fine Bird Books p. 68; Freeman 825; Mullens & Swann, pp. 148-149; Nissen IVB 206; Ripley & Scribner, p. 67; Wood p. 30.

Condition

2 parts in 1 volume, roy. 8vo (265x165mm), finely bound in recent, full, panelled calf, raised bands to spine, blind tooling to compartments, leather title pieces, marbled endpapers, binder's mark "RWD & PWD" to rear turn-in, marbled endpapers; in custom-made solander box, lined with matching marbled paper. A fine, untrimmed copy with wide margins. Occasional light edge soiling.