Beschreibung:

FERRET, Pierre Victor Adolphe and Joseph Germain GALINIER. Voyage en Abyssinie dans les provinces du Tigré, du Samen et de l'Amahara . [Paris: Lacrampe & Co. for Paulin, 1847-48]. 2 o (305 x 230 mm). Title-page, sectional titles and 44 leaves of text (8 o inlaid to 2 o), fifteen (of fifty) hand-colored engraved plates of birds after J.G. Prêtre AND NINE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR PREPARATORY DRAWINGS FOR THE PLATES BY PRêTRE. (Some light spotting.) Contemporary half calf gilt, marbled boards, by M. Edwards. Provenance : Paul Leverkühn (1867-1905), ornithologist and author of studies of ducks and birds nests and eggs, including Fremde Eier im Nest. Ein Beitrag zur Biologie der Vögel... Nebst einer bibliographischen Notiz Über Lottinger , 1891 (signature and note on flyleaf). POSSIBLY THE PRINTER'S COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, WITH NINE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR DRAWINGS OF BIRDS BY PRêTRE. Fifteen of the fifty plates included in the complete Voyage en Abyssinie are present here, with eight accompanied by the original watercolor sketches provided by J.G. Prêtre to the engraver Lebrun. Each is signed and dated 1843 for plates 4, 6, 7, 9 (for which two figures are provided), 10, 11, 13 and 15. The title-page, with a paste-over slip covering the printed word "Atlas," precedes the text of Énumération des Mammifères by M.F.E. Guérin-Méneville (pp.169-172) and Énumération des oiseaux by Guerin-Méneville and de la Fresnaie (pp.176-256). According to the British Museum Catalogue: "This volume seems to have been published in parts, at different dates, probably as follows:-- Geology, pp.1-84, 1847, Plantae, Mammalia and Aves as far as p.224, 1848; rest of Aves with Insecta, 1850." The book records the journey made through Abyssinia from 1839-1843 and is a fine example of the work produced in France to publicize the "grand voyages" undertaken during the first half of the 19th century. BM, p.602; Nissen ZBI 1346.