Natural History / Drawings, Photographs, Prints & Watercolours

MICHIELSEN, Hans (artist). [A peregrine falcon flying in the sky with a captured pigeon in its talons].
[The Netherlands], November 1983. Mixed media drawing with coloured crayon, gouache and watercolour on paper (ca. 74.5 x 60.5 cm). Signed "Hans Michielsen" and dated "11/83" in gouache in the bottom left corner. In passepartout and framed (ca. 100 x 80 cm). Full description

MILLER, John. Illustratio systematis sexualis Linnaei, ... | An illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus, ...
London, published and sold by the author at his house ..., [1770-]1777. 3 volumes. Imperial folio (54 x 38 cm). Richly engraved frontispiece with medallion portraits of Miller and Linnaeus at the head, 3 identical engraved title-pages, 2 series of engraved botanical plates, each series printed from the same 104 plates, but that in volume 1 in proof-states and beautifully hand-coloured, that in volumes 2 & 3 in black and white with titles and imprints, and 4 further plates, numbered I-IV, showing 178 varieties of leaves, finely hand-coloured. With a full-page allegorical dedicatory pen and watercolour drawing for Queen Charlotte of England on the end-leaf before the frontispiece of the first volume, and a professionally lettered index covering all 3 volumes, specially made for this dedication copy, at the end of volume 3. Contemporary uniform gold-tooled mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine. Full description

[MUSHROOMS - FUNGI]. [Mushroom album].
[France, after 1910].
Comprising:
(1) ROLLAND, Léon. Prospectus [for the] Atlas des champignons de France, Suisse et Belgique.
Paris, Paul Klincksieck, 1908.
(2) [PERIODICAL]. L'ami du Médécin.
Paris, March, April, May, July, and August 1909.
(3) [BENARDIN, Ch.]. Les champignons. [Extrait de Soixante champignons comestibles,
Fascicules V-VI and IX-XIII].
[Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and Raon-lÉtape, M. Weick and Papeteries des chatelles, ca. 1903?].
(4) [WATERCOLOUR DRAWINGS - MUSHROOMS]. [Eight leaves containing original watercolour drawings of mushrooms].
(5) [MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - M.C. COOKE]. Les champignons. [Extract from Bibliothèque scientifique internationale, tome XV].
[in/after 1882]. 5 works in 1 volume, the second in 5 issues. Ca. 25 x 19.5 cm. Ad 1 with 4 colour-printed plates designed by A. Bessin and engraved by Lassus, ad 2 with 10 colour-printed plates (2 per issue) and some black and white illustrations in the text. Contemporary half white goat leather, marbled paper sides, end papers with a printed marbled design. Ad 2 with the original blue printed paper wrappers bound in. [2] + 4 plates after ad 3; [2], “17-64”[= 48] & "81-112" [= 32] + [16 (wrappers)], [2]; [28]; [8, interleaved with translucent paper]; [12], [2 blank], [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [4 blank] pp. Full description

[NATURAL HISTORY - DRAWING]. [Album with natural history drawings].
[Netherlands?, ca. 1700?]. Small 4to (18 x 13 cm). Album with 22 drawings on 21 leaves, mostly in watercolour and pencil. Contemporary marbled boards. 21 ll. of drawings + 17 blanks Full description

OS, Georgius Jacobus Johannes. [Flowers and fruits on a marble plinth].
[Paris or Holland], [ca. 1815-1825]. Four watercolour drawings on paper, three signed "G.J.J Van Os", edged with a thin black border. [4] ll. Full description

PICART, Bernard, partly after REMBRANDT and others. Recueil de lions, dessinez d'après nature par divers maitres & gravez, ... Divisé en six livres chacun de six feuilles.
Amsterdam, Bernard Picart [title-print also: Paris, François Chereau], 1729 (engraved 1728-1729). Oblong 4to (18.5 x 24 cm). With a letterpress title-page in red and black with Picart's engraved "device, 1 title-print and 42 lion prints in 6 series, on 37 leaves, all engraved by Bernard Picart after drawings made by himself (8, all from life), Rembrandt (18), Charles le Brun (6), Albrecht Dürer (1), Paulus Potter (1) and unattributed (8). Late 19th-century pimpled red cloth with the spine at the head of the pages. Rebacked in red cloth. [1], [1 blank], 6 pp. plus 37 engraved plates with title-print & 42 lion prints. Full description

[AUTOGRAPH]. REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph. [Letter acknowledging payment from the Paris bookseller Debure for Les Roses, part 30].
Paris, 18 February 1824. 4to (24.5 x 18.5 cm). Autograph letter, signed, written in brown ink on paper, with a note in a different hand recording a related payment. [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

RIDINGER, Johann Elias. [Naturhistorisches Original-Thierwerk].
[Augsburg, Engelbrecht, 1825]. Oblong folio. With 127 numbered engraved plates including frontispiece incorporating a small portrait of Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767) in profile on a base with his name and profession, surrounded by animals, and plates showing all kinds of animals classified in 9 (of 10) sections. Lacking the title-page and part of the text, but with all plates complete. Contemporary diced half calf, gold-tooled spine, marbled sides. 28 pp. plus 127 plates. Full description

RÖSEL VON ROSENHOF, August Johann. Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generationem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur. | Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes worinnen alle Eigenschaften derselben, sonderlich aber ihre Fortpflanzung, umständlich beschrieben werden.
Nuremberg, Johann Joseph Fleischmann, [1753]-1758. 2 parts in 1 volume. Royal folio (48 x 33 cm). With hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 2 sets of the 24 engraved plates. Each of the 24 plates is present twice: beautifully hand-coloured with the figures still unnumbered, and in black and white with the figures numbered (and key letters added) but with Rösel's name erased. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. [2], VIII, [6], 116 pp. Full description

[SCHOUMAN, Aert]. [Proboscidea louisianica].
[Netherlands, 2nd half of the 18th-century]. Watercolour on laid paper (40.5 x 27 cm) of a flowering Proboscidea louisianica, with fruit and a horned seedpod on the ground. In passepartout (55 x 40 cm). Full description