MARCHAND, Albert – 26 original watercolor drawings. France, n.d. (c.1878-1880) 26 loose sheets. (sheets: 280 x 192 mm) (images: c. 110 x 80 mm)

Albert Marchand was a son of the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Marchand (1770-1850). In 1883 Albert and his brother Armand published a very rare monograph on young European birds, Les poussins des oiseaux d’Europe. The book includes 150 hand-colored lithographic plates by Albert Marchand, most of which had already been published in the Revue et Magasin de Zoologie between 1863 and 1879. This scientific journal was founded in 1849 and stopped in 1879. Apparently most of the present drawings originally were planned to be published in the Revue et Magasin de Zoologie, but according to it’s discontinuation stayed unpublished until today. Only two of the drawings have already been published in the 1878 issue of the Revue and in Les poussins des oiseaux d’Europe (plates 147 and 148). Thirteen of the drawings have copied outline sketches on tracing paper, mentioning the intended plate number for publishing, the lowest number being 147 and the largest 167. Les poussins des oiseaux d’Europe is one of the rarest 19th century bird books and one of very few books referring exclusively to chicks.
The plates include: Totanus glottis, Totanus fuscus, Fuligula nyroca, Morinellus sibiricus, Pelidna platyrincha, Gyrfalco islandorum, Larus gelastes, Caccabis chukar, Numida meleagris, Larus argentatus, Larus (?), Ardea purpurea, Otis (?), Pterocles alchata, Falco sacer, Symphemia semipalmata, Circraetus gallicus, Tringa temminckii, Aquila naevia, Ciconia nigra, Falco peregrinus, Buteo desertorum, Limosa (melanura?), Spatula querquerdula (?) and two unidentified birds.

Ronsil 1900; Nissen ZB1 2689 (for the book edition)

EUR 4500,-