Allen Zonen: Signed (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION TO DR. EMIL AUGUST GÖLDI. CONSPECTUS: Berlin: for the author, 1882. First separate edition. Octavo (8 13/16" x 5 9/16", 225mm x 142mm). [Full collation available.] With a folding letterpess table. Bound in contemporary half green morocco over green marbled paper. On the spine, four raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Rubbed, with the head-piece perished and worn at the extremities. Evenly tanned, with a few spots to the front-matter. Marginalia and corrections in graphite (mostly) as well as in ink and some in blue crayon. Presentation inscription from the author on the front wrapper: "Herrn Prof. Dr E. Göldi/ hochachtungsvoll/ der Verf." Bookplate of Göldi (dated 1902) to the front paste-down, with his violet ink-stamp to the recto of the front binder's blank and to the title-page. VOGELBILDER: Kassel: Verlag von Theodor Fischer, 1878-1883. Large paper issue. Folio (15 1/2" x 11 1/4", 394mm x 287mm). [Full collation available.] With 33 lithographed plates, hand-colored and heightened in gum arabic. Bound by C. Balesdent (Rio de Janeiro) in half green morocco over marbled boards. On the spine, four raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Shaken, with the front board precarious. Head and tail perished, with 3" loss at the head. Rubbed and worn generally. Evenly tanned, mostly mildly. A few plates foxed, but altogether good internally. With scattered marginalia, mostly in graphite but sometimes in blue crayon. Binder's ticket ("C. Balesdent/ encadernador/ Rua da Assembléa 77/ Rio de Janeiro") to the upper fore-corner of the front paste-down. Bookplate of Göldi (dated 1902) to the front paste-down. Dr. Anton Reichenow (1847-1941) was a zoologist with twin specialisms in snakes and birds. As an ornithologist his work was split between African birds and parrots -- which are distributed on all continents save Europe. The two present volumes -- the first being a rare (no copies have come to auction; OCLC records six in institutional libraries) offprint of his 1881 article in the Journal für Ornithologie, which he would go on to edit 1894-1921 -- represent his attempt at a universal system of classifying psittacines, which include cockatoos. The system is based on observations of physical characteristics, behavior and habitat; the six categories are: shortwings, swimmers, stiltbirds, skinbills, yoketoes and treebirds. His divisions never really caught on, although Reichenow was without doubt a major force in the field. The latter work, issued in 11 parts over five years, depicted some 250 individuals in its 33 plates drawn by Gustav Mützel (1839-1893). ?ützel was a passionate bird-lover who illustrated a wide range of books in the age of lithography. The plates are brilliantly colored, many heightened in gum arabic. The binder's ticket suggests that the author may have sent the large-paper issue along with the offprint, and that the recipient had it (both volumes?) bound in Brazil; I cannot find any further information on Carlos Balesdent beyond advertisements in contemporary newspapers. The two volumes were acquired jointly, both having come from the library of Prof. Dr. Emil August Göldi (1859-1917), the eminent Swiss-Brazilian zoologist. Göldi (often cited as Goeldi) did much in the late XIXc to revise often profoundly out-of-date accounts of the natural history of Brazil, which had been a source of tremendous European interest from the time of Columbus. He often cites the corresponding plate or passage in the Vogelbilder, and on occasion makes corrections to the senior scholar's Latin or other points. Somewhere, probably, is a letter with Göldi's responses, especially on the Brazilian sections. Vogelbilder: not in Anker; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 514-515; Nissen, IVB 767; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 133.…