Beschreibung:

BROWN, Peter (fl.1776). 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: B. White, 1776.
BROWN, Peter (fl.1776). 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: B. White, 1776. 4° (293 x 230mm). Titles and text in English and French. 50 hand-coloured engraved plates after the author. Early 19th-century brown morocco, spine gilt in compartments, covers with gilt roll of animals and a blindstamped border, marbled edges. Provenance : A. Bigland (ex libris). FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. 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. 42 of the plates depict birds, 5 mammals, 2 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. 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.