Details - Illustrations of British birds - Biodiversity Heritage Library

Illustrations of British birds

Title

Illustrations of British birds

Title Variants

Alternative: Meyer's British birds

By

Meyer, H. L. (Henry Leonard), 1864

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

London, Longman & Co, [1837-1844]

Notes

Engraved title pages; engraved contents list in each v.

Issued without dates on t.p., but bibliographers agree that at least 3 issues of 1st ed. were published, 1835-1841, 1837-1844, 1838-1844.

Originally issued irregularly with 313 plates in 79 pts. beginning in 1835; hardly any sets of the fol. (1st ed.) issues (of which there are 2 or perhaps 3) are alike, as plates are often added, interchanged and duplicated--Cf. Wood. However, Hale, states: "... five editions of the folio 'Illustrations' can be recognized and it is certainly not the case that no two copies are alike."--Cf. The Meyers' Illustrations of British birds, p. 139.

Plates drawn and colored by various members of the Meyer family.

Folio edition without text. The names of the birds are printed below the plates with occasional short descriptive legends.

This appears to be the 2nd issue (or, according to Hale, edition) of a work 1st published with 313 plates, with an extra 21 plates (including the egg plates) in v. 4.

"... Meyer produced three books on birds: firstly, 'Illustrations of British Birds' (4 volumes imperial quarto); secondly, 'Coloured Illustrations of British Birds' (7 volumes octavo); thirdly 'Game Birds' (one volume oblong quarto). Of the first two there were several editions, but by far the most important was the first, 'Illustrations of British Birds.'"--Cf. W.G. Hale. The Meyers' illustrations of British birds, p. 2.

Wood, C. A. Vertebrate zoology, | p. 462

Mullens & Swann. Bib. of Brit. ornithology (1917), | p. 399-404

Anker, J. Bird books, | 433

Nissen, C. Illustrierten Vogelbücher, | no. 628