History of British Birds

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A magnificently-bound example, 1797 & 1804, First Editions, 1st issue. In early twentieth-century red morocco gilt by Zaehnsdorf, covers with single fillet border enclosing central panel with floral sprays at canted corners, spines with raised bands lettered and decorated with floral tools in compartments. Internally, Vol 1, History and Description of Land Birds, 1797, [3], (iv-xxx), [2], [1], 2-335 pp, [1] advert 4th ed Quadrupeds, 117 figures of birds, 140 descriptions of birds, 91 vignettes and tail-pieces etc, printed by Sol. Hodgson. Vol 2, History and description of Water Birds, 1804, [3], (iv-`xx), [1], 2-400 pp, 144 descriptions of birds, 101 figures of birds, 136 vignettes tail-pieces etc, Numerous wood-engraved illustrations and vignettes, some light spotting and toning to a few leaves, volume I front endpaper with later inscription 'presented by the author', owner signature of Fairfax Rhodes, further inscription 'Leeds 1798', top edge gilt, , (8vo, 228*137 mm). ((ESTC N33061. Graesse 358. Lowndes 168. Roscoe. Bewick, 1.13 & 1.16). Provenance: Fairfax Rhodes, his bookplates. Fairfax Rhodes (1845-1928) studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1864, joining the Cambridge Union Society a year later. He bequeathed his large, mainly nineteenth-century library to the Society in his will, and the collection, many of which are in fine bindings is now housed in the Fairfax Rhodes Reading Room at the Cambridge Union Library. Bewick, wood-engraver, had engraved more than 600 blocks for the two volumes of the Birds when the last of the eight editions of his lifetime had been published. See ODNB for a full Bio.