New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1966. Hardcover. This handsome two volume set reproduces 431 bird paintings by Audubon for the first time from the collection at the New-York Historical Society. The reproductions are beautifully printed full page or fold-out plates. There is historical and critical information provided on each of the paintings. Bound in brown cloth with gilt titling to spine and gilt facsimile of Audubon's initials on front cover. Spines are slightly faded. The volumes are otherwise in near fine condition. They are housed in a very good brown decorated slipcase with light wear. Folio. Volume I: xxx, plates 1-223; Volume II: Plates 224-431, xlvi. NAT/091422. Near Fine. More

Washington DC: The Author, 1938. Hardcover. This self-published book includes discussions of early 18th century England, late 18th century and the Continent, early 19th century France, nature printing, and prints of fruits. Contains approximately 70 illustrations, a number of them full-page in color (13" x 9.5" pages). Part of an edition of 2,500 copies. Folio. Yellow glossy cloth-covered boards with gilt title in green design on front cover and gilt title on brown label to spine. Tape marks in upper and lower portions of both front and back cover. Other minor wear to cover, especially on corners and edges. Page are bright and clean. 275 pages, including index. ART/082922. Very Good. More

1830. Paperback. Engraving from circa-1830s edition of An History of the Earth and Animated Nature by Oliver Goldsmith. Plate # 40 includes Swallow-tailed Falcon, Malabar Shrike, Horned Owl, and Butcher Bird. Black-and-white illustration with double-lined black border. Size: 8 1/2" x 5". Paper is browned and foxed. PRINTS/112322. Good. More

London: Frederick Warne and Co., n.d. Hardcover. Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr was a French critic, journalist, and novelist. He was the editor of and a contributor to Le Figaro. Karr is credited with the well-known aphorism "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose", translated as "the more things change, the more they stay the same". He was an ardent floriculturist and gave his name to a number of new varieties. His book Voyage Autour de Mon Jardin, of which this is a translation, was originally published in 1845. Publication date of this book is not known, but owner's bookplate has date of 1874. Includes 117 black and white illustrations by William Harvey. 12mo. Dark-blue glossy paper-covered boards with raised gilt-patterned spine. Title label on spine is missing, but pressed title in black is still visible. Front and back covers show wear and scratching. Edges of covers are worn. Sunning to spine and borders of covers. Marbled front and back endpapers, and marbled edges of text block. Previous owner's book plate on inside front cover. Browning to pages, but otherwise clean, except for some foxing on front and back free endpapers. A very attractive copy. 332 pages. NATURE/082522. Very Good. More

London: James Ridgway and Sons, 1839. Original hand colored print. Includes two page (one leaf) corresponding description. Very light dampstain to margin and a few light spots of foxing, else clean and bright. Size: about 5.75 x 9.5 inches. Print/111122. Very Good. More

New York: American Ornithologist's Union, 1910. Hardcover. Third Edition. Scarce. The American Ornithologist's Union (AOU) was founded in 1883. At its first Congress in September 1883, it resolved to appoint a committee to study the question of a Revision of the Classification and Nomenclature of the Birds of North America. The committee submitted its report in 1885, and it was approved for publication. The first edition was published in 1886. There were six subsequent editions. This 3rd edition was published in 1910, with the 7th and final edition being published in 1998. In 2016, the AOU merged with the Cooper Ornithological Union to form the American Ornithological Society, which publishes a successor, the AOS Checklist of North American Birds, which is updated annually online. The initial AOU Nomenclature and Check-list publication is very important historically, and according to Joel Asaph Allen, the AOU's first president, is the basis for the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Octavo. Green cloth-covered boards with gilt title to spine. Color map of North and Central America and West Indies, showing climate zones, on frontispiece. Pages show toning. There are handwritten notes in pencil on a number of pages and on 3 blank pages at the end of the book, and an what appears to be an ink stain on the margins of pages 104-5. Some wear to edges of cover; minor wear to front and back covers and spine. Inside of front cover has splitting of paper, but covers are firmly attached. 430 pages, including index. NAT/080822. Very Good. More

Lawrence, KS: American Ornithologist's Union, 1983. Hardcover. Sixth Edition. The American Ornithologist's Union (AOU) was founded in 1883. At its first Congress in September 1883, it resolved to appoint a committee to study the question of a Revision of the Classification and Nomenclature of the Birds of North America. The committee submitted its report in 1885, and it was approved for publication. The first edition was published in 1886. There were six subsequent editions. This 6th edition was published in 1931, with the 7th and final edition being published in 1998. In 2016, the AOU merged with the Cooper Ornithological Union to form the American Ornithological Society, which publishes a successor, the AOS Checklist of North American Birds, which is updated annually online. The initial AOU Nomenclature and Check-list publication is very important historically, and according to Joel Asaph Allen, the AOU's first president, is the basis for the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Octavo. Red cloth-covered boards with gilt title to spine. Maps of North American and Central America and West Indies to front and back pastedowns and free end papers. Pages are clean and bright, but with numerous edits in pencil that seem to be corrections to the text; perhaps by an editor preparing for next printing. Spine is cocked. Minor wear to covers. 877 pages, including index. Scarce. NAT/080822. Very Good. More

Washington: Wiesedruck, 2020. Hardcover. Number 25 of 40 copies, including five sold out deluxe copies. Signed and numbered by the artist. Poe's introduction to "The Conchologist's First Book: Or a System of Testaceous Malachology" is presented within along with forty-one etchings of fifty-six shells by artist Sarah Horowitz. She writes about this exquisite book on her website: " I received two large cardboard boxes of individually wrapped shells eight years ago after the death of my paternal grandmother. Each shell was in a cellophane bag, stapled shut with a fortune-­cookie-­sized strip of paper on which was typed the Latin name and origin of the shell. My grandparents had purchased the shells in the Philippines where they lived in the late 1960s. Their house was a veritable cabinet of curiosities which was magical to me. I am engrossed by collections, particularly those of complex organic objects, and by the books that document these collections. This book is as much about the history of collecting and the act of recreating my grandparents’ collection, as it is about shells. This text by Edgar Allan Poe was written as an introduction to The Conchologist’s First Book, first published in 1839 and adapted from Thomas Wyatt’s Manual of Conchology. It was intended to be a cheaper, more concise version of Wyatt’s book for use in schools. Poe was paid to have his name on the title page in order to help sales, but he also wrote an original preface and introduction, and edited and re-­organized the text. Poe had an interest in shells from time spent on the South Carolina coast while in the US Navy, and considered the study of shells to be one of the most important branches of natural history. Wyatt’s original text borrowed much material from The Conchologist’s Textbook by naturalist Thomas Brown who derived his work from the writings of Jean-­Baptiste Lamarck and Carl Linnaeus." Orange leather spine with decorative printed paper covered boards and gray leather title label to spine. Housed in a cloth covered box with matching paper covered edges. Letterpress printed by Arthur Larson of Horton Tank Graphics on Phoenix paper made specifically for this project by Gangolf Ulbricht in Berlin, Germany. Identification pages are printed on Kaji Natural paper. Housed in a gray cloth slipcase. Binding and slipcase by Claudia Cohen. Measures 6.5 x 9 inches. Unpaginated. PRI/090722. Fine. More