The Natural History of the Birds of Western Africa. Vols I & II. The Naturalist's Library. Ornithology, Vol VII & VIII by William Swainson, Sir William Jardine - editor

EDINBURGH: W H LIZARS A fair copy of the 'People's Edition' of The Birds of Western Africa, in 2 volumes in the original publisher's cloth binding with 64 hand coloured plates. When the full set of the Naturalist's Library had been published, it was decided to do a reissue using the same plates and text, but taking advantage of cheaper printing technology to reduce costs. The aim was to reach a wider audience without compromising quality. This set is undated but circa 1845. Vol I: black and white frontispiece portrait of Bruce; hand coloured vignette title page; a further title page; contents listing; Memoir of Bruce; text with black and white illustrations and 32 hand coloured plates; 286pp. Vol II - frontispiece portrait of Le Vaillant; hand coloured vignette title page; a further title page; contents listing; text with black and white illustrations and 32 hand coloured plates. 263 pp. The bindings are in fair to good condition: Vol I is fair - with a bright clean binding but some splitting at the joint with the front board and splitting internally at the joint in the front endpaper and some slight darkening to the middle of the spine; Vol II is good, being very bright, clean and sound with minor wear to edges and corners and slight darkening to the middle of the spine. The original endpapers are present - both with a bookplate of E R on the front pastedown and ink stamps for Horton Hall Library (the ink has slightly offset to the feps). Vol I has some spotting to the frontispiece and title pages; some text pages are unopened and the contents are clean bar offsetting from the plates to the text. Vol II is clean and bright but with offsetting - there are no tissue guards in either volume.