MORRIS, Francis Orpen. A History of British Birds
London, George Bell and Sons, 1870.
£ 650
Large 8vo, second edition. 4 volumes out of 6 (Nos 1,2,3 and 6, complete with all the plates). The complete work in 6 vols contains 365 hand-coloured plates. Here there are about 250 in total. Text clean and fresh throughout, plates with vivid colours and remarkable brightness. Publishers binding, blind-tooled green/blue buckram over boards, richly gilt spine and gilt-stamped centrepiece on left covers. First and second volume with joints starting to split. Corners and cover edges a little rubbed. Pencil autograph of “C. H. Prior” on left endpapers. A famous work, but incomplete, nevertheless provided with a good number of beautiful illustrations.
Zimmer, p. 443; Mullens & Swann, p. 415-418; Strong II, p. 613.