Forum Rare Books

First western book on bonsai trees

LIEGELSTEINER, George. Wohlgezogener Zwerg-Baum oder Gründlicher Unterricht wie die Frantz-Bäume gewartet werden müssen, ...
Leipzig, Wolffgang Deer, 1747. 8vo. With woodcut frontispiece, 8 engraved figures on 1 folding plate, and about 30 woodcut figures in the text. Contemporary half tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [1 blank], [11], 143, [9] pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Arboriculture & Dendrology China Horticulture

The first comprehensive work on Japanese marine shells, with 37 chromo-lithographed plates

LISCHKE, Carl Emil. Japanische Meeres-Conchylien.
Kassel, for Theodor Fischer (colophon: Elberfeld, by R.L. Friderichs & Comp.), 1869-1874. 3 volumes. 4to. With 37 chromo-lithographed plates. Contemporary blind- and gold-blocked cloth. [4], 192; [4], 184; 123, [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Faunas & General Zoology Japan & Far East Marine Biology & Oceanography Shells & other Invertebrates

First Dutch edition of one of the greatest herbals, with approximately 2185 botanical woodcuts

LOBEL [also L'OBEL or LOBELIUS], Matthias de. Kruydtboeck oft beschrijvinghe van allerleye ghewassen, kruyderen, hesteren, ende gheboomten.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1581. 2 volumes bound as 1, the second in 3 parts. Large folio. With an engraved title-page, the author's large "candore et spe" woodcut device on leaf *6r, approximately 2185 botanical woodcuts in the text, 8 woodcut decorated (sometimes interlaced) initials plus repeats (6 series) and 1 typographic interlaced initial. Set in fraktur types with extensive roman and textura and incidental italic and civilité. Later (17th-century?) blind tooled vellum. [10], 994, [2 blank], "312"[= 312, 294 + 2 blank], [2 blank], 15, [1 blank], [67], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Early Printing - 16th century Herbals & Medical Botany Plantin Press

One of the chief equesterian works of the early modern period,
this edition with 61 newly-engraved illustration plates

LÖHNEISEN (LÖHNEYSS), Georg Engelhard. Neu-eröffnete Hof- Kriegs- und Reit-Schul, das ist: gründlicher Bericht della Cavalleria, oder von allen, was zur Reuterey gehörig und einem Cavalier davon zu wissen gebühret, ...
Nürnberg, Paul Lochner, 1729. 6 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With engraved frontispiece, engraved plate with the elaborately quartered coat-of-arms of the dedicatee, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and 61 engraved illustration plates (9 double-page, and many with 2 half-page illustrations per plate). 19th-century gold- and blind-tooled diced light brown calf, gold-tooled spine. [30], 66; 96; 114; 136; 144; 104, [8 (of 10)] pp. Full description

€ 15,000

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Horses & Horsemanship

The butterflies of Madagascar, with 63 plates

MABILLE, Paul. Histoire naturelle des Lépidoptères de Madagascar.
Paris, l'Imprimerie Nationale, 1885-1887. 2 volumes (text & atlas). Large 4to (32 x 25 cm). With 63 aquatint plates printed in brown and black. Later brown half morocco. [4], V, [1 blank], 364 pp. Full description

€ 975

Butterflies / Lepidoptera Insects & Spiders Southern Africa

Educating the Austrian army in the anatomy of the horse, with 10 large colour plates

MACHOLD, Joseph (Josef). Zehn tafeln zur anatomie des Pferdes . . .
Vienna, the author "in Commission bei F. Paternos Nachfolger" (printed by Adolf Holzhausen), [1879]. Oblong 1mo (35×49 cm). With 10 numbered chromo-lithographed and double-tinted lithographed plates (35×49 cm), loose as issued. Original publisher's printed front wrapper preserved, back wrapper lacking. In a modern clamshell box. 15, [1 blank] pp. plus plates. Full description

€ 4,500

Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine Faunas & General Zoology Horses & Horsemanship Military History (19th Century)

Presented by the author to Florian Pharaon

MAGAUD D’AUBUSSON, Louis. La fauconnerie au Moyen Age et dans les temps modernes. Recherches historiques, didactiques et naturelles.
Paris, Auguste Ghio, 1879. 8vo. With half-title and errata leaf. Contemporary gold-tooled half morocco, with the original publishers printed wrappers bound in at the end. [8], 272 pp. Full description

€ 3,500

Birds - Ornithology Falconry, Fishing & Hunting

Short manuscript descriptions of various birds, animals, plants and trees found in the forests of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

[MANUSCRIPT - CEYLON - NATURAL HISTORY]. Schets van eenige zoorten van dieren welke in de bosschen omstreeks Cijlon gevonden worden.
[Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the Netherlands?], [18th or 19th century?]. 8vo (16.5 x 10.5 cm). Written in a late 18th-century or early 19th-century cursive in French and Dutch.
With: (2) [MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH & DUTCH POEMS AND SONGS]. [Quelques Chansons]. Contemporary decorated paper wrappers. [28] pp. Full description

€ 1,750

Ceylon Dutch Literature Faunas & General Zoology French Literature India & Sri Lanka Literature Manuscripts & Documents VOC

Captivating manuscript in Dutch, detailing a journey to the Arctic regions

[MANUSCRIPT - DUTCH - ARCTIC REGION]. [Anonymous eyewitness travel report of a journey to the Arctic region in search of good waters for whaling].
[ca. 1790]. 4to. Manuscript written in Dutch in black ink in one clear, although not very sophisticated, hand on paper (sheets varying in origin and size ca. 20-21 x 14-16 cm). Modern artificial brown leather, marbled pastedowns, with the late-18th-century decorated paper wrappers bound in. [17] ll. Full description

€ 9,500

Arctic & Antarctic Birds - Ornithology Canada & Greenland Faunas & General Zoology Fishery & Whaling Fishes Floras & General Botany Scandinavia

Autograph letter from the New Zealand naturalist Thomson to fellow carcinologist
and renowned French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards

THOMSON, George Malcolm. [Manuscript letter from George Malcolm Thomson to Alphonse Milne-Edwards].
High school, Dunedin, New Zealand, 30 August 1882. 20.5 x 12.5 cm. Written in a neat cursive in brown ink on laid paper made in Scotland watermarked "A Cowan & Sons Ivory". Folded. [2], [2 blank] pp. Full description