Beschreibung:

Catalogue of the Passeriformes, or Perching Birds [… of the Game Birds], in the Collection of the British Museum.
London: printed by Order of the Trustees, 1877-1893. 6 Volumes various (vols. III, VI, VIII, XI, XIV and XXII ) 8vo (212 x 137 mm). Uncoloured portrait, 5 uncolored half-tone plates, 93 hand-colored lithographic plates by J.G. Keulemans or J. Smit, extra-illustrated with 1 color-printed plates and 119 hand-colored lithographic plates (including 45 hand-colored lithographs by Paul Louis Oudart, 26 of these pattern plates signed and dated by Oudart. Uniform green half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines lettered in gilt. Condition : occasional light spotting, small repaired tear to inner blank margin of Oudart plate between pp.134 and 136 in vol.XI, small dampstain to outer margins of two plates; spines faded, extremities slightly scuffed. Provenance : Lynn Abbott Trust. a unique extra-illustrated selection, including an important series of pattern plates of a particularly colorful bird family . In addition to the required plates and a selection of additional plates by or after Joseph Wolf Gould, and others, there is also a complete set of Oudart’s plates to P.L. Sclater’s A Monograph of the birds forming the Tanagrine genus Calliste (London: 1857-1858) [see Fine Bird Books (1990) p.139]. It may be the case that all 45 of the plates were colored by the artist himself, but what seems certain is that, at the very least, the 26 dated and signed examples are pattern plates colored by Oudart (and are also proofs before titles). Pattern plates were prepared by the original artists for the guidance of the colorists, and represent what the artist considered the best possible examples of their work.