BOUTEILLE, Hippolyte and M. de LABATIE.
Ornithologie du Dauphiné ou description des oiseaux observés dans les départements de l'Isère, de la Drome, des Hautes-Alpes et les contrées voisines.
Grenoble, for the author and "les principaux libraires de la ville", by F. Allier, 1843[-1844]. 2 volumes bound as 1. Royal 8vo (27 x 18.5 cm). With 72 mounted lithographed plates by C. Pégeron after Victor Desirée Cassien, printed on china paper, and a large folding table. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine. 416; 358, [2 blank] pp.
€ 2,750
First and only edition of a descriptive and systematic account of the avifauna of Dauphiné, a former province in southeast France, and one of the few copies with all plates printed on China paper.
This work by Hippoloyte Bouteille (1804-1881), a French oOrnithologist, pharmacist and conservator of the museum of natural history at Grenoble, and the otherwise unknown M. de Labatie, contains splendid illustrations of more than 300 species after drawings by the Grenoble artist Victor Desirée Cassien and is described by Ronsil as "une des plus intéressants parmi les faunes locales". Although volume two is dated 1843 on the title-page, it wasn't published until at least 1844, for on p. 327 it mentions an event in spring 1844.
With bookseller's ticket and bookplate. Only a minor stain on the first half-title, otherwise a very good and attractive copy. Nissen, IVB 127; Ronsil 361; Wood, p. 252; Zimmer, pp. 84-85; for Cassien: Thieme & Becker VI, p. 128.
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