Nouvelles Illustrations de Zoologie / New Illustrations of Zoology by BROWN, Peter

London: Printed for B. White, 1776. With Fifty Fine Hand-Colored Engraved Plates
Including Forty-Two of Birds

BROWN, Pierre (Peter). Nouvelles Illustrations de Zoologie, contenant cinquante planches emluminées d'oiseux curieux, et qui non etés jamais descrits, et quelques de quadrupedes, de reptiles et d'insectes, avec de courtes descriptions systematiques. New Illustrations of Zoology, containing fifty coloured plates of new, curious, and non-descript Birds, with a few Quadrupeds, Reptiles and Insects. Together with a short and scientific description of the same. London: Printed for B. White, 1776. Title-pages and text in both French and English.

First edition. Large quarto (11 5/16 x 9 inches; 288 x 229 mm.). [viii], 134, [2, list of plates] pp. Fifty finely hand-colored engraved plates depicting forty-two species of birds, five mammals, two insects and one amphibian.

Contemporary full tree-calf, covers decoratively bordered in gilt, expertly re-backed to style. Spine with five raised bands, decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments, red morocco label lettered in gilt, gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled end-papers. Corners expertly repaired. A near fine example with superb hand-coloring of the plates.

The work is principally based on specimens in the natural history collections of Marmaduke Tunstall and Thomas Pennant, but also includes plates based on drawings by the Ceylonese artist P.C. de Bevere in Java and Ceylon. Forty-two of the plates depict birds, five mammals, two insects and one an amphibian. Much of the text was supplied by Pennant, who had previously employed Brown for two of the plates in his British Zoology, and the work was published by Gilbert White's brother, Benjamin. Peter Brown, a Dane by birth, was also known as a flower painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1770 to 1791.

Nissen IVB 151; Wood p. 264; Zimmer p. 101.