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Kano, Tanyu (Kano Morinobu)(1602-1675) and Shuhan, Sekichushi Hyakkacho zu Yamashita Sekichushi Shuhan utsusu; Kanji Shiseika… (Hyakucho [Gafu])
Kaul, Samsar Chand Birds of Kashmir
Kastner, Joseph. A world of watchers.
Kastner, Joseph, text (commentaries by Gross, Miriam, T., introduction by Peterson, Roger Tory). The bird illustrated 1550-1900 from the collections of the New York Public Library.
Kaufman, Kenn (1953-). Kingbird highway The story of a natural obsession that got a little out of hand
Keeler, Charles A.(ugustus)(1871-1937) Evolution of colors in North American birds
Keinen Imao (1846-1924). (Birds and flowers of the four seasons). Four prints only.
Keinen Imao (1845-1924). Keinen kachõ gafu. The complete original four-volume work.
Keinen Imao (1845-1924) Keinen album Birds and flowers(1979 reproduction)
Keith, Allan R., Fox, Robert P. The birds of New Hampshire
Kelaart, E(dward) F(rederick) (1819-1860) (Blyth, Edward [1810-1873], Layard, Edgar Leopold [1824-1900]). Prodromus faunae Zeylanicae.
[Kemp, A(lan) C.] (Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney [1875-1920]). Claude Gibney Finch-Davies / 1875-1920....
Kemp, Dr. Alan (fl. late 20th century) (Finch-Davies, Claude-Gibney[1875-1920], artist). The birds of prey of Southern Africa.
Kemp, Dr. Alan (fl. late 20th century) (Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney[1875-1920], artist). The birds of Southern Africa.
Kemp, Alan (C.) (text), Calburn, Simon (illustrations). The owls of Southern Africa.
Kemp, Dr. Alan (fl. late 20th century), introduction(Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney, [1875-1920], artist). The bird paintings of C. G. Finch-Davies.
Kemp, A(lan) C. (Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney). The biography of Claude Gibney Finch-Davies....
Kemp, Alan (illustrated by Martin Woodcock) The hornbills Bucerotiformes
Kennedy, P. G., Ruttledge, Robert F., Scroope, C. F. (assisted by G. R. Humphreys). The birds of Ireland An account of the distribution, migrations and habits as observed in Ireland.
Kershaw, Cicely (1903-) Familiar birds of Ceylon
Keulemans, J(ohn) G(errard) (1842-1912). A natural history of cage birds.
Keulemans, Tony (1930-), Coldewey, Jan (1918-). Feathers to brush The Victorian bird artist John Gerrard Keulemans 1842-1912.
Keulemans, J.(ohn) G.(errard)(1842-1912). Onze vogels In huis en tuin beschreven en afgebeeld.
Keulemans, John Gerrard (1842-1912). Two rare hand-colored, lithographic prints.
Keyser, Leander S. (1856-1937). Birds of the Rockies.
Kiggins & Kellogg (Publishers). The aviary; or child's book of birds.
King, Ben F., Dickinson, Edward C. ( illustrated by Martin W. Woodcock). A field guide to the birds of south-east Asia covering Burma, Malaya, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Hong Kong.
Kinzan, Haruna (Shunmei). Kacho gashu (Ka-cho-ga Shu Shunmei Kinzan fide Trinity).
Kirby, Mary (1817-1893, also referred to as Mrs. Mary Gregg) and Elizabeth (1823-1873). Beautiful birds In far-off lands: their haunts and homes.
Kirkman, F(rederick)B(ernulf Beever)(1869-1945) and Jourdain, F(rancis)C(harles)R(obert)(1865-1940). British birds.
Kittlitz, F. H. von (1799-1874) Über einige Vögel von Chili....
Kivirikko, Karl Emil (1870-1947). Suomen linnut.
Klein, J. C. (1685-1759)Zammlung verschiedener Vögel Eyer in natürliche Grösse und mit lebendigen Farben geschildert und beschrieben Leipzig, 1766
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954) Berajah Zooographia infinita Lieferung 1 Saxicola borealis
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954). Realgattung Falco Peregrinus…
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954). Die Raubvögel der Heimat auf 60 farbigen und 21 schwarzen Tafeln …
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954). Die Singvögel der Heimat.
Knight, Ora Willis (1874-1913). The birds of Maine with key to and description of the various species…
Knight, Charles R(obert)(1874-1953) and Hardcastle, Ella. Birds of the world for young people
Knobel, Edward (1839-?). Field key to the land birds.
Knobel, Edward (1839-?) Field key to the land birds Copy with dust jacket
Kobayashi, Keisuke (1908) (illustrated by Takashi Miyamoto). Genshoku Nihon chõrui zukan Birds of Japan in natural colors.
Koenig Alexander (Ferdinand)(1858-1940), Nicoll, Michael J.(ohn)(1880-1925). Birds of Egypt.
Koenig, Alexander (1858-1940). Avifauna Spitzbergensis Forschungsreisen nach der Bären-Insel und dem Spitzbergfen-Archipel, mit ihren faunistischen und floristischen Ergebnissen.
Koenig, Alexander (1858-1940). Die Vögel am Nil von seiner Mündung bis in das Gebiet seiner Quellflüsse (Weisser Nil) auf Grund eigener Reisen und Beobachtungen in Wort und Bild dargestellt.
Koepcke, Dr. Maria (1924-1971) Las aves del departamento de Lima
Koford, Carl B. (1915-1979) The California condor
(Köhler, Eugen [fl. 1895-1905]). Nützliche Vogelarten und ihre Eier.
(Köhler, Eugen, [fl. 1895-1905]). Köhler's schädliche Vogelarten.
Komarova, A. (illustrator). Ptitsy Stroiteli.
Körner, M.(agnus Peter)(1808-1864). Skandanaviska foglar tecknade efter naturen, lithografierade och utgifne af M. Körner.
Kortright, Francis H. (illustrated by T.(errence) M. Shortt) The ducks geese, and swans of North America
Kosen (Shoson, Hoson) Ohara (1877-1945). Collection of prints.
Kovacs, Carlos Julio, Kovacs, Ors, Kovacs, Zsolt, and Kovacs, Carlos Mariano (translated by Mariliana Padilla) Illustrated handbook of the birds of Patagonia Argentine Antarctica and islands of the southern Atlantic
Krider, John (1813-1886) Ornithological and oological list of North America
Kuhl, Heinrich (1797-1821). Conspectus psittacorum cum specierum definitionibus, novarum descriptionibus…
Kuhnert (Friedrich)Wilhelm(Karl)(1865-1926) (text by Lydekker, R.(ichard, [1849-1915]). Animal portraiture being fifty studies by Wilhelm Kuhnert accompanied by a series of original articles by R. Lydekker F. R. S.
Kumlien, L(udwig)(1853-1902), Hollister, N(ed). The birds of Wisconsin.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978). Ducks of The world.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978). Sen-man Chôrui Ippan( Birds of Korea and Manchuria).
Kuroda, N. (1889-1979) Notes on Formosan birds with the description of a new bullfinch, 1917
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978). A monograph of the Charadriidae.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978) (On a collection of birds from Hainan) (In japanese) 1921
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978). On a third specimen of rare Pseudotadorna cristata Kuroda In Japanese and English, 1924
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978), Matsudaira, Y., Taka-Tsukasa, N., Uchida, S. A hand-list of the Japanese birds.
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978)(Cranes of the world) In Japanese 1926
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978 Collection (10) of Tori offprints 1926-1931
Kuroda, Nagamichi(1889-1978) A collection of birds from the island of Bali
Kuroda, Nagamichi(1889-1978) A small collection of birds from the island of Bali
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978). A monograph on the pheasants of Japan including Korea and Formosa.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978) A history of ornithology in Japan
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978) The protection of birds in Japan
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978 On the migration of certain birds in Tokyo and the vicinity (II).
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)A revision of the types of birds described by Japanese authors during the years 1923 to 1931
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978) (Birds of the Borodino Islands )In Japanese.1935
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)(The conclusion of the call notes in the problem of Eurystomus and Otus s. Japanonicus) In Japanese
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978). A glimpse of bird life in the Dutch East Indies In Japanese, 1936
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978). An examination on the individual variations among 1,000 Teal. In Japanese, 1937
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978). Dr. Kuroda’s birds in life colours.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978). Birds of the island of Java.
Kuroda, Nagamichi, (1889-1978) Geese and ducks of the world
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978). Parrots of the world in life colours.
Kyosu, Yukiyasu. (The birds of Japan North Alps).
Kano, Tanyu (Kano Morinobu)(1602-1675) and Shuhan, Sekichushi
Hyakkacho zu / Yamashita Sekichushi Shuhan utsusu; Kanji Shiseika… (Hyakucho [Gafu]) 24.6 x 17.5 cm. Very thin laid paper with vertical chains and sprinkled mica. Four volumes in two. Each volume with 38 Japanese-style leaves (i. e. externally conjugate, internally unprinted), most with an uncolored woodblock illustration, others with accompanying text, or text only. Patterned yellow paper-covered card lacking printed labels, Japanese-style stitching. Originally published in Tokyo and Kyoto, Kyoho 14 (1729), this edition probably published in Meiji era (1867-1912).
The Kano family was a dominant artistic force in 16th and 17th century Japan and the present artist is discussed by Christine Jackson under Tanyu in her Dictionary of bird artists (1999), p. 459. He was a generalist like Morikuni. Specialists in kachoga did not emerge until the late 19th century. Amongst the interesting pictures is one of a bird-of-paradise of the genus Paradisea.
This work is listed by Yale and the LOC. The LOC copy, listed under "Kano, Tanyu" reads: "Hyakkacho zu / Yamashita Sekichushi Shuhan utsusu; Kanji Shiseika… [et al]. Edo Izumoji Izumi no Jozohan; Kyo(to) Doten, Kyoho 14 (1729). 4 vol. ill (woodcuts); 26 cm" The Yale copy is described similarly save it is characterized as 5 volumes in 9. The work is unlisted by AMNH, BMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Melvyl, Oxford, Trinity and the Smithsonian and no later editions are mentioned in any of these bibliographies.
A world of watchers 23.3 x 17.2 cm. One preliminary leaf, pp. [I-vi]vii-x[1-2]3-241[242-244]. Original publisher's blue cloth-backed blue boards with gilt lettering on upper cover and spine. Pictorial dust jacket. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
Preliminary leaf: recto, blank; verso, list of other books by author; i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title with screech owl vignette; iv, copyright; publisher's acknowledgments; ISBN 0-394-52869-7; v, dedication; vi, blank; vii, contents; ix, list of illustrations; 1, half-title; 3, prologue; 6, text; 17, Specer Fullerton Baird and his army missionaries; 30, William Brewster and the Nuttall Ornithological Club; 39, the great sparrow war; 48, Elliott Coues and his key; 60, the Linnaean Society and two Roosevelts; 70, the Audubon Society and conservation; 85, the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, Witmer Stone and Charles Pennock; 97, the Cooper Ornithological Society and Joseph Grinnell; 113, egg hunters; 120, Edward Howe Forbush and the Birds of Massachusetts; 1332, the Wilson Ornithological Society, Thomas Roberts and Althea Sherman; 145, Margaret Morse Nice and the song sparrow; 156, Elizabeth Dickens and woman writers; 169, John Burroughs, the poets, a white house watcher and Henry Ford; 185, Chester Reed, Frank Chapman, Ludlow Griscom and the Bronx County Bird Club; 17, The guide; Roger Tory Peterson; 207, listers and savers; 217, epilogue: Henry Thoreau and Gilbert White; 233, author's acknowledgments; 225, bibliography (text references); 231, index; 243, a note about the author; 244, a note on the type. Contains 18 unnumbered, uncolored chapter-opening half-tone illustrations from sketches by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, some used more than once and 10 unnumbered, colored half-tone images by Fuertes (four full-page) printed on both sides of four unpaginated glossy leaves, containing also a brief biography of the artist.
This is a history of American ornithology and ornithologists written by a former editor of Life magazine and directed at a popular audience.
The book is listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity and Yale.
Kastner, Joseph, text (commentaries by Gross, Miriam, T., introduction by Peterson, Roger Tory).
The bird / illustrated / 1550-1900 / from the collections of / the New York Public Library 27.3 x 21.8 cm. Pp. [1-6]7-127[128]. Original publisher's white cloth with gilt vignette of stork from Belon on upper cover, gilt lettering to spine. Endpapers decorated with uncolored plate from Seba. Pictorial dust jacket. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1988.
1, Half-title; 2, publisher designation; 3, title with colored figure; 4, copyright; credits: designer, Elissa Ichiyasu; photographs, Philip Pocock; printed and bound in Japan; ISBN 0-8109-0746-1; 5, contents; 6, colored frontispiece from Nozeman; 7, foreword by Vartan Gregorian; 8, introduction by Peterson; 10, an aviary of illustrators (historical); 12, predators; 28, game birds; 38, waders; 52, birds of field and woodland; 76, swimmers; 90, exotic birds; 110, list of plates; 115, bibliographic checklist of the exhibition; 128, acknowledgments; Contains half-tone plates 1-96 (42 colored), most full-page with commentary at bottom, printed on both sides and included in pagination. Also contains two other full-page colored plates including frontispiece, colored illustration on title page and two uncolored text figures.
This is an illustrated catalog for an exhibition of illustrated ornithological books held 6 February through 7 May, 1988 at the New York Public Library. The most useful part of this catalog is the "bibliographic checklist" of 115 titles. The size, number of plates, illustrator, technique, engraver or lithographer and printer for each of these books is given together with various informed comments and references for further bibliographic details. Thus, the entries emphasize accurate information about the production of the illustrations, usually the weakest part of a bibliography. The selection of books was also interesting and I was much stimulated and influenced by the exhibition such that I acquired a number of title based on having seen them there for the first time.
Listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.
Kingbird / Highway / The Story of a Natural Obsession / That Got a Little Out of Hand 21.0 x 14.2 cm. Pp. [i-vii]viii-ix[x]xi-xii(2, second half-title)1-318. 166 ll. Original maroon buckram-backed boards, gilt lettered spine, dust jacket. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. First printing.
i, Half-title; iii, title; iv, publishing information; v, dedication; vii, contents; ix, editor’s note; xi, preface; 1, text. Contains several uncolored drawings by the author in the text. Signed by the author with an interesting inscription on the verso of the half-title.
This book describes a year-long, 69,000 mile odyssey around North America during which the author, at age 19, recorded 671 species of birds. The book is dedicated to Theodore A. Parker (1953-1993), a contemporary and much admired friend of the author who describes him as (p. 269) “...one of the greatest field ornithologists of all time, the ultimate authority on the ultimate bird continent (South America)”. I was a participant on a very intense and intensive birding tour to Peru that Ted led when he was 23 and I was 44 so I got to know him reasonably well, as indicated by the author in his inscription.
Keeler, Charles A.(ugustus)(1871-1937)
Evolution of the colors / of / North American birds 23.5 x 14.8 cm. π[1]82-228236(-236)[$1 signed]; 187 ll. Pp. [i-v]vi-xii[1]2-361(1) Binder’s brown cloth, gilt lettering on spine. San Francisco, California Academy of Sciences, January, 1893.
π1r, leaf with “Occasional papers / of the / California / Academy of Sciences / III. / San Francisco, / 1893.”; π1v, blank; π2r, title; π2v, committee of publications; π3r-π3v, preface; π4r-π6v, contents outline; 1, I., introduction; 132, II., the colors of North American birds; 337, bibliography (more than 150 references, most without year of publication); 345, explanation of plates; 349, index. Contains tintstone (chromo)lithographic plates I-XIX of which 10 are colored. Five of the plates are double-page and of these, three are colored. The plates are all mounted on guards and are designated “Lith. Britton & Rey, S.F.”. The artist for most of them is designated as “C. A. K. Del.”(Keeler).
This is a densely written work concerned with adaptation and Darwinism as applied to American birds. It led to some spirited discussion in the literature and gained its youthful author a small measure of notoriety.
Wood, p. 415; Zimmer, p. 346. OCLC locates about 100 copies.
(Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons) Four prints only, 36.5 x 26 cm. (Kyoto, ca. 1882)
Four color-printed wood blocks on hand-made paper depicting respectively (I think) a Ruddy Kingfisher, a Wompoo Pigeon with an all white companion, a parrot of the genus Psittacula and a pair of Double-barred Crossbills. These four prints contain identical stab holes and are thus probably from the same book although two of them have a Japanese numerical designation at top center whereas this designation is in Arabic numerals for the other two. The prints show the birds amongst leafy plants and flowers and there is no signature by the artist, the attribution to Keinen being in the text portion of the work according to the woman who sold these to me. They come from Keinen Ka-Cho Gafu, a work referred to as “Bilderbuch der Blumen und Vögel” in Der Vogel in Buch und Bild, a reference catalogue put out to describe an exhibition by the Bern Natural History Museum in 1954. The catalogue describes the work as published in four volumes in Kyoto, 1891/92, each volume specifically devoted to a single season. The wood blocks are said to be by J. Tanaka and the coloring by N. Miki. Keinen is an ornithological artist who is well-known to print dealers. The style of my plates is similar to those reproduced save that the numbering of the latter (in Japanese) is on the upper right rather than top center. It is possible that the 1891/92 version is a second edition with the numerical designation in a slightly different location than in the prints of the 1882 edition described below.
About one week after I obtained these prints from “Things Japanese” in September, 1996, I encountered another group of them at Metropolitan Arts and Antiques. They had been consigned by a Mr. Keith Sheridan. They were clearly from the same work, the identical size with the same black borders and even with similarly spaced stitch stabs. The designations, however, were at the top center. There were no overlaps with the four that I had bought but there was a print identical to one that I had seen and considered before rejecting at “Things Japanese”. Sheridan attributed them to “Imao Keinen, 1846-1924. Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, 1882”. Sheridan did something very impressive in providing common English names for all ornithological and botanical subjects. I can’t vouch for the flowers but he was correct with the birds.
Like the other Japanese color-printed wood block works in my collection, this one by Keinen is not listed in any of the standard reference works including those of the British Museum and the Zoological Society. However, I did find it listed for the UC Berkeley Library.
Keinen Kachõ Gafu Volume 1, Haru (Spring); Volume 2, Natsu (Summer); volume 3, Aki (Autumn); Volume 4, Fuyu (Winter). Volume 1: six initial printed leaves, two final printed leaves and 31 colored plates of which nine are double-page so a total of 28 leaves. Volume 2, two initial and two final printed leaves and 32 colored plates of which eight are double-page so a total of 24 leaves. Issued 5 May, Meiji 24 (1891). Volume 3: one initial printed leaf, two final printed leaves and 38 colored plates of which four are double-page so a total of 24 leaves. Volume 4, two initial and two final printed leaves and 34 colored plates of which six are double-page so a total of 24 leaves. Issued 20 November, Meiji 25 (1892). Original Japanese stitched wrappers with gold sprinkling and printed upper (right-hand) covers. Kyoto, Meiji 24-25 (1891-1892), published by Nishimuru Sõzaemon; printed and sold by Tanaka Jihei. Preface by Suzuki Hyakunen, Keinen’s teacher.
This work and Kõnõ Bairei’s Bairei Kachõ Gafu are the two most beautiful that I have seen of the kachõ genre i. e. works illustrating flowers and birds together in tableaux that are reproduced by woodblock line and color printing. I find myself quite unable to express why I like these books so much. There is a catalogue (Der Vogel in Buch und Bild) for an exhibition in 1954 of ornithological books and art from a collection in Bern that comments (p. 40) of these pictures: “Umso mehr sprechen uns die vielen wundervollen Farbenholzschnitte durch ihre Ausdruckskraft, durch ihre Lebendigkeit, künstlerische Gestaltung und exotischen Reiz an.” They are unlike any western representations of birds and flowers.
Bartlett and Shohara, p. 239. Unlisted by Trinity, Wood, Yale, Zimmer. The four volume set is absent from most major ornithological libraries but is present in the UC-Berkeley Library.
All four of these volumes were issued by Nishimura Sôzaemon in Kyoto. The engraver was Tanaka Jirôkichi. The printer was Miki Jinsaburo. A copy of the work printed in color half-tone was published in Showa 51 (1979).
The following is taken from an offering of one of the prints of this work on Ebay:
"Imao Keinen was born in Kyoto, his original name was Imao Isaburo. He studied ukiyo-e painting with Umegata Tokyo and other Japanese styles with Suzuki Hyakunen. In 1880, he began to teach as a professor at the Kyoto Prefecture School of Painting. In 1904, he became a member of the Art Committee of the Imperial Household and a Member of the Imperial Art Academy in 1919. An important Japanese style painter, Keinen specialized in Kacho-ga (Flower and Bird prints) with very realistic detail. He is best known for “Bird and Flower Albums by Keinen”, 1891, a set of 4 volumes, each containing 40 prints, published by Nishimura Soemon, carved by Tanaka Hirokichi and printed by Miki Jinzaburo."
Keinen Imao (1845-1924)
Keinen album / birds & flowers 27.6 x 21.0 cm. Bound oriental style (right to left.) Spring [1]2-52(4, advertisements); Summer [1]2-56 (53-56, advertisements); Autumn 1-54(2, advertisements); Winter 1-52(4, advertisements). Gray simulated leather with silver lettering in English and oriental characters on spine. Pictorial dust jacket. Cardboard slipcase with mounted pictorial title piece. Taipei, Art Book Co., Ltd., 1979.
This is a reproduction in color half-tone of Keinen’s great album of birds and flowers (1891-1892). There are 135 plates including 27 that are double-paged and thus comprising 81 leaves. The original text, or at least part of it is also reproduced and there is an introductory introduction in English by Kai-yu Hsu of San Francisco State University. The work is printed in both English and oriental (Taiwanese[?]) characters. The characters adjacent to the plates and designating the birds depicted are different from those in the original work so these characters are probably not Japanese. The birds and flowers are identified in indexes that are presented in both English and in oriental characters.
Although the pictures lack the quality projected by the original colored woodblocks, they are no less striking in their own way.
This reprint in color half-tone is listed by the LOC but not by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.
Keith, Allan R., and Fox, Robert P.
The birds of / New Hampshire 28.0 x 21,3 cm. Memoires of the Nuttall Ornithological Club No. 19. Pp [1-8]9-473[474](6, blank). Original publisher’s green cloth. Gilt lettering to upper cover and spine. Black and white photopictorial dust jacket with promotional material printed in green panel on lower cover. (Boston), Nuttall Ornithological Club, 2013.
1, Half-title; 2, blank; 3, title; 4, copyrights, 2013; ISBN 978;-1-877973-47-5; 5, dedication; 6, uncolored map of New Hampshire; 7, table of contents; 9, foreword; 11, acknowledgements; 13, introduction; 21, discussion of habitat changes; 28, history of the New Hampshire ornithological literature; 33, Christmas bird counts; 40, Hawk watching; 49, species accounts; 401, appendices, I. reports of exotics; 406, II, museum specimens; 414, III, summary of banded bird recoveries; 422, IV, summary of breeding bird survey results; 427, bibliography; more than 1,400 references; 463, index of English and generic names; 471, Nuttall Ornithological Club publications; 474, printer designation: The Ascensius Press, South Freeport, Maine. Contains about 60 unnumbered black and white text sketches (three full page) by Andrea E. Robbins.
Kelaart, E(dward) F(rederick) (1819-1860) (Blyth, Edward [1810-1873], Layard, Edgar Leopold [1824-1900])
Prodromus / faunae Zeylanicae; / being / contributions to the zoology / of / Ceylon 21.3 x 13.6 cm. π41-4452[A]4B-AA4BB4(-BB4)A1-D14E1-H12I12(-I12)K18[$1 signed]; 154 ll. Pp. (8)[i]ii-xxxiii(3)[1]2-197(1)[12-22]32-622[632-662]. Contemporary double blind-ruled half green morocco and marbled boards. Spine with five double blind ruled raised bands. Gilt lettering in second and fourth compartments. Marbled endpapers. TEG. Ceylon: for the author, 1852(-1853).
π1r, Half-title; π1v, printer designation: Colombo: John Hieler; π2r, title; π2v, blank; π3r, dedication to Andrew Smith; π3v, blank; π4r, contents; π4v, blank; I, preface; ix, natural history of Newera-Ellia (geology, meteorology, and zoology); includes list of 50 birds; 1, Ceylon, mammalia; 91, birds of Ceylon, list of nearly 250 species of which 34 thought to be endemic; 139, Ceylon reptiles; 189, Ceylon amphibia; 12, appendix; 32, A,, flora of Ceylon by George Gardner; 152, B, description of Bos gaurus by Walter Elliot; 222, C, notes and descriptions of some new or little known species of Ceylon birds by Ed. Blyth; 372, Mr. Blyth's report on Ceylon mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes,March 1852; 512, two letters from Kelaart to Layard, newly deputed Secretary of the Ceylon Asiatic Society; 552 catalogue of Ceylon birds by E. F. Kelaart and Edgar L. Layard (from the Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society for January, 1853); lists 316 species; 632, index of popular names of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibia; 662, index of Singhalese names.
This is an extremely significant work because it represents the beginning of modern descriptive zoology for the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Kelaart was an English physician and military man who was stationed there for some time but usually relied on others to do his collecting and often on Blyth for identification of specimens. There was considerable friction between Kelaart and Layard concerning the different lists of Ceylonese birds. The jointly published list as the last article in this volume was mainly the work of Layard who was the more active field man of the two. That very important list is apparently often absent from this title. It is lacking in the British Museum copy (described on p. 966 of their catalogue) which, however, has a second appendix that apparently constitutes what they call volume two and contains five additional journal articles published between 1853 and 1855. The Yale and Harvard copies are identical to my own save that the index of names is apparently lacking.
Wood, p. 174. Listed by AMNH (lacking final catalog of birds), Harvard, Yale. Not listed by Cornell, Trinity.
[Kemp, A(lan) C.] (Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney [1875-1920])
Claude Gibney Finch-Davies / 1875-1920 / observer, student and / highly skilled illustrator / of / Southern African birds (from upper cover of portfolio) 35.4 x 30.1. Pp. A single leaf of text, printed in English on one side, in Afrikäans on the other. Cape Town, the Transvaal Museum, 1966. Contains 12 loose colored plates after Finch-Davies, numbered only on text leaf.
This portfolio contains the same 12 prints that were selected for the concurrently published and similarly titled biography of Finch-Davies by A. C. Kemp and may have been intended to accompany some or all copies of the book. However, I have never seen the portfolio mentioned in a description of the book. The text leaf contains a condensation of the biography as well as brief descriptive commentary, absent from the book, about the 12 species. The material is presented in two languages whereas the book is in English. The colored plates are framed by an impressed margin, differing yet again from the book in this respect. Although the same firm, Hirt and Carter of Johannesburg, is credited with the colour separation, the Knysa Loerie is much greener in the portfolio plate than in the book where it is decidedly coppery. Coloring of the other plates in the portfolio and book is identical.
This portfolio is not listed by any of the major libraries.
Kemp, Dr. Alan (fl. late 20th century)(Finch-Davies, Claude-Gibney[1875-1920], artist)
The / Birds of Prey / of / Southern Africa 28.5 x 21.6 cm. Pp. [1-20]21-239[240]; 170 ll(initial blank leaf included in pagination, final two blank leaves not so included [by me] although bound in by publisher). Original publisher's brown cloth, gilt lettering on spine. Pictorial dust jacket. Tan endpapers made from laid paper. Johannesburg, Winchester Press, (1980). First, and only edition.
1-2, blank; 3, limitation statement, this copy being No. 1473 (standard subscriber copy) of 1726 (26, special Presentation, 200 de luxe Collector, 1500 standard Subscriber); 4, blank; 5-13, list of subscribers; 14, blank; 15, half-title; 16, frontispiece of Lesser Kestrel; 17, title; 18, copyright dated 1980; production details; publisher's acknowledgements; 19, contents; 20, blank; 21, foreword by Dr. C. K. Brain, Director, Transvaal Museum; 22, blank; 23, introduction concerning birds of prey; 28, uncolored photoportrait of Finch-Davies; 29, biography of Finch-Davies; 36, blank; 37, relationship (taxonomy) of species; 39, list of plates; 44, text and plates. Contains 141 plates including frontispiece and numbers 1-140. Plates present colored figures with uncolored foregrounds and their leaves are printed on both sides.
Kemp began the resurrection of the work of Finch-Davies with the publication in 1976 of a biography of the artist and a small selection of his pictures. Most of the paintings by Finch-Davies had to remain unpublished for at least 50 years after his death in 1920 because of legal considerations. In the present work, Kemp begins to mine the rich lode of material by selecting examples from the artist's favorite group, the diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey. Finch-Davies was perhaps the most meticulous of all ornithological artists, the ultimate "every feather" portraitist. However, such a designation should not be regarded as pejorative in the case of this great artist. As Anker (#211) remarked in describing the pictures the artist did for Horsbrugh's Game Birds and Water Fowl of Southern Africa (1912), "..almost without exception faultless both as regards drawing and colour". The same can be said of the pictures in this book. Despite a complete lack of formal training, Finch-Davies is among the great ornithological artists, and birds of prey are particularly well suited to his style.
Usually, in a book like this, the author's role is minimal, to provide some sort of commentary to justify publication. That is not the case here. Kemp is an outstanding ornithologist with great knowledge of these birds and his accompanying essays provide illuminating insights into the nesting, hunting, life history and biology of these interesting birds.
This is one of the outstanding ornithological books of its era and was immediately recognized as such. It went out of print almost immediately despite little promotion.
Present at Cornell, Trinity. Unlisted by AMNH, Harvard, Yale.
Kemp, Dr. Alan (fl. late 20th century)(Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney[1875-1920], artist)
The Birds / of / Southern Africa 29.0 x 22.0 cm. Pp. [1-28]29-488[489-490]; 245 ll (initial blank leaf included in pagination by publisher, final three blank leaves not so [by me] included). Original publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Tan endpapers of laid paper. Johannesburg, Winchester Press, (1982). Presented in a plain brown slipcase of cloth-covered boards. Original and only edition.
1-2, blank; 3, limitation statement, this being No. 1735 of 3026, a standard Subscriber copy (26 special Presentation, 250 de luxe Collector, 2750, standard Subscriber);4, blank; 5-21, list of subscribers; 22, blank; 23, half-title; 24, frontispiece of female Blue-cheeked Bee-eater; 25, title; 26, copyright dated 1982; production information; publisher's acknowledgement; 27, contents; 28, blank; 29, foreword by Dr. C. K. Brain, Director, Transvaal Museum; 31, introduction: overview of southern African birds; 50, uncolored photographic portrait of Finch-Davies; 51, biography of Finch-Davies; 59, list of plates; 65, text and plates; 489, same photographic portrait of Finch-Davies, smaller version. Contains 177 plates including frontispiece and numbers 1-176. Plates present colored figures with uncolored foregrounds and their leaves are printed on both sides.
After the highly successful publication of Birds of Prey of Southern Africa in 1980, Guy Winchester (Wnchester Press) knew that he had a winning formula. So the present work was produced in an almost identical style and format including such touches as endpapers made of laid paper, an initial blank included in pagination, and a large number of leaves before the title page. The only differences I noticed are that this book is printed on very slightly larger paper and that it came with a brown cloth-covered slipcase.
This book showcases the work of Finch-Davies over a much wider range since it comprises representatives of most families that occur in southern Africa. This includes diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey so 14 plates from the earlier work are reproduced here again.
For a book whose appeal is intended to be in its graphics, this work has an important and outstanding text. The wide variety of species that is covered allows Kemp to express and exhibit his great interest and impressive knowledge concerning evolution and taxonomy. The introduction describes the evolution and relationships amongst various birds in considerable detail and with great scholarship. The specific text accounts amplify on the points made in this introduction. The result is a text that is almost as impressive as the pictures.
This book is present at AMNH, Cornell, Trintiy but unlisted by Harvard and Yale.
Kemp, Alan (C.) (text), Calburn, Simon (illustrations)
The / owls of / Southern / Africa 30.1 x 22.9 cm. Pp. [1-8]9-184. Publisher's tan cloth with sepia owl design on upper cover, sepia lettering to flat spine. Pictorial dust jacket. Promotional brochure laid in loosely. Housed in publisher's pictorial thick card slipcase. Cape Town, Struik, Winchester, 1987.
1, Half-title; 2, colored frontispiece; 3, title with vignette; 4, copyright 1987; first published 1987; credits: designed by Joanne Simpson; reproduction by Photo Sepro (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town; printed by Tien Wah Press (Pte) Ltd Singapore; ISBN 0 947430 03 2 (standard edtion); 5, dedication with vignette; 6, colored plate; 7, contents; 8, uncolored plate; 9, foreword; 10, colored plate; 11, acknowledgements; 14, colored plate; 15, introduction; 19, artist's notes on illustrations; 25, text, part one (on the biology of owls); 75, part two, systematic accounts, Tyto alba-Strix woodfordi, comprising 12 species; 172, glossary; 175, bibliography (51 entries); 177, index of English and scientific names; 179, lists of subscribers (about 700 for standard edition). Contains: about 39 unnumbered colored plates (18 double-page) printed in half-tone with another plate or running text on obverse and included in pagination; about 24 uncolored half-tone illustrations (two full-page) some with multiple figures; 12 partly colored distribution maps.
This is a finely produced comprehensive monograph with attractive illustrations complementing a scholarly text. There is one extraordinary spread of 10 colored plates following in detail the development of a single spotted eagle owlet from day 4 through 29. The text for each species begins with a lengthy and detailed life history with meticulous attention to the reproductive period. This is followed by a "summary of biology" that includes specific sections on: identification and habitat; distribution and status; hunting and diet; breeding and productivity.
Like most well produced South African books of the era, this one was produced in several editions, a standard, unlimited, of which the present book is an example, and Sponsors' and Collectors' editions of 26 and 300 copies.
Listed by AMNH, Harvard, Trinity (collectors' edition), Yale. Not listed by Cornell.
Kemp, Dr. Alan (fl. late 20th century), introduction(Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney, [1875-1920], artist)
The / Bird Paintings / of / C. G. Finch-Davies 37.0 x 27.7 cm. Pp. [I-X]XI[XII-XIV]15-311[312]; 156 ll. Original publisher's fine umber cloth with mounted color plate of Yellow-billed Stork on upper cover, black block lettering on spine. Tan endpapers made from laid paper. Johannesburg, Winchester Press, (1984). First and only edition. Presented in a thick, umber cloth-covered slipcase with a larger version of the same colored plate mounted on the upper cover.
I, colored plate of Ayres's Eagle; II, blank; III, limitation page. This copy No. 3249 of a toal of 5026, a subscriber volume (26 Presentation, 300 Collector, 4700 subscriber volumes); IV, blank; V, half-title; VI, frontispiece of Narina Trogon; VII, title; VIII, copyright dated 1984; brief biography of Kemp; production information; publisher's acknowledgements; IX, explanation of plates on preliminary pages and cover; X, blank; XI, foreword by Dr. C. K. Brain, Director, Transvaal Museum; XII, blank; XIII, contents; XIV, full-page colored portrait of Finch-Davies; 15, introduction, a biography of Finch-Davies by Kemp; 91, the bird paintings; 295, inventory of paintings, illustrations, publications; 301, acknowledgements;302, list of subscribers; 312, uncolored portrait of Finch-Davies. Contains colored plates (both sides of leaf printed) 1-99 with facing facsimile manuscript text by Finch-Davies. Also contains three unnumbered colored plates including the portrait in the preliminaries and another 10 (eight full-page) unnumbered colored plates in the introduction for a total of 112 colored plates (110 full-page). The introduction also contains a colored map, 16 unnumbered, uncolored photographs, many full-page and several reproductions of letters and manuscript.
This book contains several differences in style and format from its two successful antecedents that, like it, exhibited a large number of paintings by the artist. The paper size is much larger. The text for each plate is that originally written by Finch-Davies and is reproduced in facsimile manuscript. Kemp's role has been reduced to that of biographer only, however, the present biography is much more complete than those in the previous books and is embellished with new and interesting graphical material. The large list of subscribers has been put at the end so that the title page is now near the beginning of the book. The printing of the text and the binding for this volume was done in Singapore rather than in South Africa.
The prints appear somewhat different in this large format. Although the color separation was done by the same firm in South Africa, the colors in this book seem darker and more intense than in the previous books. Many of the pictures had already been published in those books so it is interesting to compare them. The biography in this book is very well presented and contains some early pictures by the artist as well as photographs of individuals who played a significant role in his life. One of Austin Roberts is particularly striking. Roberts played a considerable role in the sequence of events that lead to Finch-Davies' death by suicide and it is ironic that Norman Lighton, the illustrator for Roberts' own very important book, copied many of his pictures from those of Finch-Davies.
This work is present at Cornell, Trinity and Yale but unlisted for AMNH and Harvard.
Kemp, A(lan) C. (Finch-Davies, Claude Gibney)
The biography of / Claude Gibney Finch-Davies / 1875-1920 / Observer, student and / highly skilled illustrator / of / Southern African birds 35. 4 x 30.1 cm. 48 Leaves comprising one preliminary leaf, pp. 1-15, an unpaginated section "Examples.." of 61 pages, pp. 16-33. Original publisher's unlettered white cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Pictorial endpapers. Pretoria, Transvaal Museum, (1976).
Preliminary leaf, recto: title; verso, copyright dated 1976; printer designation: Cape Town, Galvin & Sales; colour separation: Hirt & Carter, Johannesburg; 1, prologue; 2, life and work; 28, epilogue; 31 scientific publications, published illustrations; 32, original paintings. Contains title page photograph, two uncolored full-page photographs (pages 3, 12) and a two-page photograph of a manuscript letter. The section between pages 15 and 16 is entitled "Examples of the work of / C. G. Finch-Davies." It includes a single-page introduction, six uncolored and four colored (one of insects) full-page illustrations (printed on both sides of the leaves) from his early work, and 12 full-page colored plates that are representative of his mature opus. Each of these 12 is printed on the recto only and is accompanied by a preceding leaf that, on its recto, has the name of the bird, and on the verso, facing the picture, a facsimile of Finch-Davies' manuscript notes on the species.
This is the first of a series by Kemp that promotes and resurrects the reputation of Finch-Davies as an exceptionally talented painter of South African birds. Finch-Davies or Davies (Finch was his wife's name which he adopted) was a British career officer who was passionately interested in birds and was caught stealing prints from books in the Transvaal Museum. As part of a legal settlement, he gave the Museum his entire collection of original paintings which, for legal reasons, were not to be reproduced until 50 years after his death. He subsequently committed suicide. During his lifetime, the only major commission that he undertook was the plates for Boyd Horsbrugh's The Game-Birds and Water-Fowl of South Africa (1912). Anker (#211) describes the plates for that book as "..almost without exception faultless both as regards drawing and colour."
The present book represents the rediscovery of a major talent. 1000 Copies of this, the trade edition were printed, and there was a limited, leather-bound edition of 100 numbered copies. The author, Alan Kemp, is a highly regarded professional ornithologist who has written widely on hornbills and owls.
The 12 prints from Finch-Davies's mature work that are reproduced here were also issued as a separate loose-leaf album that is part of my collection.
I believe I have read that the pictures on the endpapers of this book were mistakenly attributed to Finch-Davies and were actually drawn by Henrik Grövold.
This book is present at Cornell, the LOC and Berkeley but is lacking at AMNH, Harvard, the Smithsonian, Trinity and Yale.
Kemp, Alan (illustrated by Martin Woodcock)
The hornbills / Bucerotiformes 23.3 x 19.0 cm. [i-v]vi-xv(1)[1-3]4-302. Publisher’s black buckram with gilt lettering to spine. Color pictorial printed dust Jacket. Oxford, New York, Tokyo, Oxford University Press, 1995.
i, Introduction to series “Bird Families of the World”; ii, list of series books (3); iii, title; iv, copyrights; ISBN 0 19 857 729 X; printed in Hong Kong; v, contents; ix, acknowledgements; xi, list of colour plates; xii, abbreviations; xiii, plan of the book; xvi, topographical diagram of a hornbill; 1, part I, general chapters; 3, the world of hornbills; 10, design of hornbills; 24, non-breeding behaviour;36, feeding ecology; 46, breeding biology; 61, relationships and evolution; 82, conservation; 89, part II, species (54) accounts; 266, glossary; 270, references (about 300); 292, index including English, generic and specific names. Contains half-tone color plates 1-10, 1 and 2 each containing six small photographs after Kemp and others, 3-12 containing illustrations of all 54 species after Woodcock. The letter press is on the obverse of the preceding plate and thus facing the appropriate plate. All plates included in pagination. Also contains 27 text figures numbered relative to the chapter in which they appear and an uncolored distribution map for each species.
This was the first volume in the Oxford University Press series “Bird Families of the World” of which at least 19 volumes had appeared by 2014. These volumes are each meant to be the definitive source of information concerning the family they cover and they do not disappoint. In addition to the extensive “general chapters” each detailed species account comprises: description of both sexes and immature birds; moult; measurements and weight; field characters; voice; range, habitat and status; feeding and general habits; displays and breeding behaviour; breeding and life cycle; and a large distribution map. The carefully arranged pictures are extremely accurate. This excellent book had the misfortune of appearing at virtually the same time as Forshaw and Cooper’s much more sumptuous account of the hornbills in their series on the Coraciformes.
OCLC locates almost 300 copies.
Kennedy, P. G., Ruttledge, Robert F., Scroope, C. F. (assisted by G. R. Humphreys)
The birds of Ireland / an account of the distribution / migrations and habits as / observed in Ireland 22.7 x 15.0 cm. A-E28F28(-F28)[$1, 3 signed]; 227 ll. Pp. [i-iv]v-xiii[xiv-xv](1)1-437(1). Original publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Top edge dyed green, others uncut. Pictorial dust jacket with original price of 42/ on upper flap. Edinburgh and London, Oliver and Boyd, 1954.
i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title; iv, "first published..1954"; printer designation: The Kynoch Press, Birmingham; v, introduction; x, blank; xi, contents; xiv, blank; xv, list of illustrations; 1, systematic accounts, Colymbus arcticus-Passer montanus comprising approximately 350 species; 422, list of Irish names; 426, index of English and scientific names. Contains uncolored plates I-XI displaying 14 photographic images printed in half-tone on one side only and not included in pagination.
This book describes the status of every bird on the Irish list with dates, breeding records and local distribution. The previous work on the subject was Ussher and Warren's The Birds of Ireland, published in 1900.
The work is listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity and Yale.
Familiar birds / of Ceylon 18.3 x 13.5 cm. No signatures. Pp.(4, title, blank, blank, colored frontispiece)[1]2-144; 74 ll. Original publisher’s maroon cloth with framed fraction of colored frontispiece mounted on upper cover, gilt lettering on upper cover. Colombo, H. W. Cave & Co., 1925.
1, identification table; 9, order Passeres, about 57 species; 97, order Pici, three species; 101, order, Zygodactyli (barbets), three species; 105, order Anisodactyli (Coraciformes), eight species; 120, order Macrochires (swifts), one species; 121, order Coccyges, three species; 126, order Psittaci, one species; 127, order Acciptres, four species; 132, order Columbae, three species; 137, order Hemipodii, one species; 140, order Grallae, one species; 143, order Herodiones, one species. Contains colored frontispiece and 45 unnumbered, uncolored full-page plates containing sketches of 1-3 species, the latter all included in pagination.
This is an interesting early popular work on the birds of Ceylon. It contains simple descriptions and life histories including the appearances of nests and eggs. The author was only 22 when this work was published. A second edition was issued in 1933. Under her married name (Lushington), the author published "Bird life in Ceylon" (1949) and illustrated W. W. A. Phillips’ "Birds of Ceylon" (1949-1961)
This is quite a scarce work. OCLC locates only 10 copies.
Keulemans, J(ohn) G(errard) (1842-1912)
A / Natural History / of / Cage Birds (from wrappers) 28.5 x 19.1 cm. Pp. [1]2-113(1); 57 ll. Later tan beveled buckram with single blind panel, gilt lettering on spine. London, John Van Voorst, February-September, 1871. Contains 24 unnumbered hand-colored lithographs after Keulemans by M. & N. Hanhart (21) and P. W. M. Trap (3), each with a protective blank leaf of thin paper (not included in pagination). Original wrappers bound in.
Wrappers: there are four sets of tan printed wrappers. The upper outer wrappers have two engraved panels and simple corner decorations. They contain the designation Vol. I. and the part number (1-4); the dates of publication, February, April, July and September, 1871; title; contents; place, London; publisher, Van Voorst; and price, five shillings (per part). The upper inner wrappers are blank. The lower wrapper of the first part contains the prospectus which begins on the inner side and continues on the outer side which is numbered ii. The lower wrappers of the other three parts are blank.
Signatures: there is a C on page 5 but no coherent signatures until page 34, the initial leaf for the Wood Wren, the eighth species to be treated. The signature 8 appears at the base of this page and then each species has its own sequential signature on its initial page of text through the 24th and last. If the species account contains more than two leaves, the third leaf has the number followed by the letter b.
This is one of two books actually written by Keulemans and is amongst the scarcest of the books which he illustrated. According to Coldewey, in an unpublished annotated list of his own collection, only approximately 40 (complete) copies of this volume were issued with the last part being particularly rare. The prospectus calls for 20 parts with 120 plates but demand for the services of Keulemans rapidly increased at this early stage in his career and distracted him from his own work. He writes in the prospectus "…all drawings.. are made from the living object, whereby correctness on attitude, form and colour has been ensured." Doubtless this accounts for the liveliness of the portraits which are among the best that he ever did. Mullens and Swann write (p. 327) "His plates have always delighted the eye, and of the innumerable works illustrated by him it would be hard to name the most beautiful, yet some exceptionally fine plates were executed for his Cage Birds…."
The text indicates the high intelligence Keulemans must have possessed. He writes with a mastery of English that is quite unbelievable when one considers that it is not his first language(and may not even be his second or third since he was also fluent in German and French). The species accounts are often highly personal as, for example, when he describes his experiences with the Grey Parrot on Prince's Island where he lived for a year. I had the pleasure of seeing the parrots on that island, usually known as Principé, and probably stood in some of the very same spots from which he observed the birds. Since each of the species that he describes is one he knew well either in captivity and/or the wild, he tells us much in a narrative manner concerning distribution, plumage variations, food, song, behavior and life history. In addition to the names in English and Latin, he provides them in Dutch, French, German and Spanish as well.
Two complete copies at Oxford. Other complete copies at BM(NH); LOC, Yale; Copies with parts 1-3 at BMNH(second copy) and Smithsonian. Unlisted by AMNH, Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Wood, Zimmer..
Keulemans, Tony (1930-), Coldewey, Jan (1918-)
Feathers to brush / the Victorian bird artist / John Gerrard Keulemans / 1842-1912 32. 9 x 23.0 cm. Pp. [I-VIII]VIII-XVII[XVIII]1-94; 56 ll. Original publisher's half brown morocco with green buckram sides. Gilt lettering on rounded spine. By the authors, Epse, the Netherlands / Melbourne, Australia, 1982 (from copyright page). Prospectus laid in loosely.
I, half-title; II, limitation statement signed by both authors, this copy #234 of 500; III, title; IV, copyright, 1982; printer designation: Drukkerij de Lange / van Leer, B. V.; V, plate I; VI, dedication to great, great grandsons of the artist; VII, uncolored photograph of the artist as a young man; VIII, list of about 192 subscribers accounting for approximately 210 copies; XI, plate II; XII, preface; XIV, acknowledgements; XVI, foreword by G. F. Mees, Rijksmuseum, Leyden; XVIII, table of contents; 1, plate III; 2, list of illustrations; 6, introduction; 9, the beginnings; 13, west African expedition and its sequel; 19, the English connection; 29, the man and his style; 47, the final years, an assessment; 53, references; 56, publications illustrated by J. G. Keulemans; 71, appendix I, the other self: spiritualism; 78, appendix II, Dr. Sharpe's correspondence n a "new edition of Shelley's 'Birds of Egypt'"; 82, appendix III, genealogical data; 91, index; 93, about the authors. Contains uncolored photographs of the artist and both authors; illustrations numbered I-XXVIII comprising: 19 full-page colored plates showing 20 colored plates from published works illustrated by the artist; five full-page colored plates showing seven previously unpublished colored pictures by the artist; four uncolored plates, two full-page, showing nine pictures ( two originally colored) from published works illustrated by the artist.
Anyone who collects ornithological books can scarcely help but have an interest in J. G. Keulemans who was certainly amongst the best of all ornithological artists and arguably the most prolific. Moreover, he worked in an era where his pictures were reproduced by craftsmen specializing in lithography and hand-coloring, the techniques by which most of his published pictures were produced. This book, by a well known collector of pictures by the artist, and by the artist's great grandson, is the first biography of the artist and contains the first assembled list of publications that he illustrated.
The extremely useful list of publications illustrated by the artist is the most important part of this book and is remarkably complete with respect to works containing the original prints. Many of these were, and continue to be reproduced in subsequent works and the attempt by the authors to include such later publications has quite a few omissions and will necessarily accumulate more.
Most of the bibliographical information in the book is accurate, however, the work is not without mistakes. The most egregious of these is attribution of plate XXII, Eos insularis, to Keulemans. This picture was originally published with the signature of J. Smit in the image as plate 34 of the Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1885. Subsequently, the signature was erased and Guillemard used the plate as the frontispiece for volume II of The Cruise of the Marchesa, and attributed it to Keulemans. The plate, with the parrot flying, is not at all in the style of Keulemans. The authors also state (p. 37) that the daughters of Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909) colored the first edition of Buller's Birds of New Zealand (1873). In this, the authors are perpetuating an amusing error that had been published several times previously.
Listed by AMNH, Cornell, Trinity. Not listed by Harvard, Yale.
Keulemans, J.(ohn) G.(errard)(1842-1912)
Onze Vogels / In Huis en Tuin / beschreven en afgebeeld Three volumes 27.4 x 18. 2 cm. Original publisher's beveled green cloth with blind paneling and blind floral design, on upper covers surrounding a striking, centrally places gilt stamped vignette of a royal or religious head with adjacent horn-blowing cherubs and a crown containing flowers in an elegant urn with birds perched on its decorations. Spine with elaborate gilt panels, designs and lettering. The volumes are entirely unpaginated and without signatures. Each volume begins with the same uncolored lithographic title page depicting a very attractive aviary scene. This is followed in each case by two content leaves enumerating the species described and illustrated in that volume. All of the plates are protected by tissue guards. Leyden, P. W. M. Trap. The three volumes presented in a later gilt-ruled green morocco-backed green cloth slip case, the spine containing five gilt-ruled raised ridges with gilt lettering in second, fourth and sixth compartments.
Deel I. 1869. Contains 131 leaves of text and 70 hand-colored lithographed plates after Keulemans by Trap. Also contains the bookplate of C. J. Coldewey, the collector of Keulemans and co-author of the biography of Keulemans, Feathers to Brush (1982).
Deel II. 1873. Contains 133 leaves of text and 70 colored plates.
Deel III. 1876. Contains111 leaves of text (Wood and Zimmer each call for 110) and 60 colored plates.
In this supremely beautiful work, Keulemans selects 200 species he knows well in life and uses them to display his artistic talent. This particular copy is from the Coldewey collection and is completely fresh and virtually flawless, allowing the reader to appreciate fully, the superb artistry and coloring.
Although the plates in this work are all hand-colored lithographs designated "J. G. Keulemans ad. nat. P. W. M. Trap, exc.", they fall into two classes. One type has either a frame or background wash of tint stone lithography, whereas the other is never framed and its background wash is painted by hand. The latter makes a considerably superior print and is comparable in every way to the work of the great contemporary English firms such as M. & N. Hanhart. The distribution of these finer prints among the three volumes is interesting. In the first volume, they comprise only four of the 70 plates, in the second volume, 30 of 70, and in the last volume, all 60. Thus, volume III is technically superior to volume I. Indeed, I believe that volume III contains the most beautiful collection of plates in any book illustrated by Keulemans. This volume is often missing from sets of the work, perhaps because its superior production necessitated a smaller print run. It is significant that the quality of the printing of the plates parallels the career of their artist. When volume I appeared in 1869, Keulemans had just begun to attract attention with his plates in Sharpe's Kingfishers. By 1876, when the last volume was issued, he had become amongst the most highly sought of ornithological illustrators. It is also noteworthy that this work was not produced in parts as were most comparable color plate books of its era, and that it was published by Trap rather than by the author. Apparently, Trap was willing to assume the financial risk of the enterprise.
This is the only work I know that is illustrated by Keulemans in which the plates are lacking lithographed initials or a lithographed signature. It is also unusual in containing figures of North American birds of which did very few. Amongst those included are Wood Duck, California Quail, Mockingbird, Bluebird ( a particularly fine depiction), Bobolink, Baltimore Oriole (the figure of which is mislabeled and reversed with that of the next species, the Troupial), Cardinal, Painted Bunting, and a wonderfully colored indigo Bunting. The plate of the Troupial is remarkable quite apart from the fact that it is mislabeled. The bird is shown engaging a small tree snake which renders the painting rather an adventurous one for Keulemans who was, after all, no Audubon!
This is the ultimate book for a collector of Keulemans because the artist was working for himself rather than for another author; because in it, he depicted only living birds that he had actually seen and studied as native European species or as common aviary birds; and because the species shown are those he preferred to paint. As would be expected under these circumstances, the birds are the liveliest that he ever drew and they are often shown in interesting settings that are usually lacking in the fastidious portraits that he did under the supervision of other authors. A comparison with the only other work that he, himself, wrote and illustrated, A Natural History of Cage Birds (1871) is interesting. All 24 species treated in Cage Birds are also figured in this book. The texts of the two works for these species are different in content as well as language. Some illustrations, such as those of the Great, Blue and Bearded Tits are entirely different. Cage Birds contained only three plates printed by Trap and these, Garden Warbler, Hawfinch, and Red-blled Quelea, are here represented by identical lithographs that are clearly taken from the same stones. Naturally, they fall into the high quality group of prints. They all appear in volume II, so they were published first in Cage Birds. In Cage Birds, they were designated "J. G. Keulemans del et lith" so we know that for at least these three plates, and probably for all those of high quality in Onze Vogels, Keulemans served as his own lithographer. It is certainly conceivable that he did the lithography for the other plates as well, but that seems less obvious. Finally, some of the figures in Cage Birds were copied on different stones for the printing by Trap in Onze Vogels. In these cases, the backgrounds are slightly different. In the case of the Fire-coloured Weaver-bird, the figure is reversed indicating that the lithograph from Cage Birds had served as the model. In other cases, including the Magpie and Greater Whitethroat, the pictures are not reversed and were presumably recopied from the originals onto stone.
In a privately issued catalogue covering his library, Coldewey states that the edition of Onze Vogels comprised 500 copies. It's not clear how he arrived at that figure which seems a high one to me. I consider it unlikely that Trap would have obligated himself to printing and coloring 100, 000 plates done by an unknown artist, as Keulemans was when the drawings for volume I were being done. On the other hand, this is certainly not an excessively rare work, although, of course, good copies like this one are. I would guess that approximately 200-300 copies were issued, at least for the first two volumes. Casey Wood's statement that Keulemans himself colored all the prints in this work strikes me as highly unlikely. However, it may be the case for volume III, the coloring of which may be the finest I have ever seen. As noted above, I think the print run for this volume may have been smaller than for the first two, even though the artist's reputation had increased enormously during the interval between the appearance of the volumes.
I can't end this entry without remarking on the highly attractive original publisher's binding that adorns these volumes. It is a fine example of the late 19th century use of gilt and blind stamp to embellish trade books and enhance their marketability. The same can be said for the uncolored lithographic scene that imparts a special impact to the title page.
Wood, p. 416; Zimmer, p. 347. Also listed by BM(NH), Yale. Unlisted by AMNH, Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard, LOC, Oxford, Smithsonian, Trinity.
Keulemans, John Gerrard (1842-1912)
Two rare hand-colored, lithographic prints.
1. Propasser saturatus. The print depicting a pair of this species measures 20.4 x 14.4 cm. Above the image, on the left side of the plate, is printed: "W. T. BLANFORD. Journ: A. S. B. Vol. XLI. Pt; II. 1872." On the right side, "Pl: VIII". Below the image on the left is printed: " J. G. KEULEMANS DEL. ET LITH." On the right side of the plate, "P. W. M. TRAP EXC.,in the middle, "PROPASSER SATURATUS'. The lithographed signature is "JGKeulemans".
The print depicts a species of Rosefinch and comes from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, publication of which began in 1832. This journal is listed (p. 205) by Wood and by Ripley and Scribner (p. 12) who refer to it as Journal of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
2.Parus vieirae and Parus brittanicus. The print depicting single individuals of these species measures 21.0 x 13.8 cm. Above the image, on the left side of the plate, is printed: "Manchester Memoirs, Vol. L., No.13." On the right side, "Plate" without a number. The date 1906 is written in pencil at the top. Below the image on the right is printed: "West, Newman, imp." Nothing is printed on the right. In the middle is printed: "1. PARUS VIEIRAE / 2. "(ditto) BRITTANICUS." The lithographed signature is "JGK".
The print depicts two varieties of Coal Tit. Manchester Memoirs is not listed as a serial publication in the usual ornithological bibliographies but probably corresponds to Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society of which volume 41 appeared in 1896 as listed in the BM(NH) catalog, p. 1232.
Neither print is listed by Coldewey and Keulemans in their bibliography of Keulemans' published prints.
Keyser, Leander S. (1856-1937)
Birds of the Rockies 23 x 17 cm. Pp. Blank, half-title, [i-xiii]xiv[xv-xviii]19-355[356-358]. Original decorative cloth with colored Louisiana (Western) Tanager on upper cover. Chicago, A. C. McClurg and Co., 1902. Printed for A. C. McClurg & Co. by the University Press, John Wilson & Son, Cambridge, U. S. A.
[i]title; [iii], dedication; [v], contents; [vii], illustrations; [xi], poem; [xiii], brief foreword; [xv], poems; [xvii], first chapter half-title; 19-303, text; 307, check-list of Colorado birds; 349, index. Contains eight full-page unpaginated plates after Louis Aggasiz Fuertes. Four are half-tones, the other four are three-color prints. Also contains 39 text illustrations, some of which are full-page photographs of scenery but most of which are sketches after Bruce Horsfall that are artistically integrated into the typed portion of their pages.
According to the author, the text of this book was derived from a number of unspecified articles that appeared in unidentified antecedent publications. The useful check-list at the end was taken from W. W. Cooke’s Birds of Colorado that was published in 1897. There is some charm to this work. It involves both the anecdotal, relaxed style of writing and the attractive plates and text illustrations. The former are not only relatively early work of Fuertes, but also relatively early examples of photomechanical reproduction and they work well on both scores. The ever critical John Zimmer remarks of this book “....containing many interesting notes.”
Trinity, p. 137; Wood, p. 416; Yale, p. 156; Zimmer, p. 348.
Kiggins & Kellogg (Publishers)
The / Aviary; / or / Child's Book of Birds 15.3 x 9.7 cm. Pp. [1-4]5-24; 12 ll. Signature 1* on page 9. Original printed blue wrappers with wood-engraved design on upper cover, advertisements for other booklets on lower cover. New York, Kiggins & Kellogg, no date (ca. 1840). "Fourth Series, No. 8" (from upper cover).
1, title; 2-24, text. Contains title page vignette, six full-page wood engravings, 11 half-page wood engravings, all uncolored, unnumbered, and included in pagination. One engraving bears the signature R(?)NW.
This is a booklet for children that covers a peculiarly diverse group of birds including: "Humming-Birds", "Snowbird", "Carrier Pigeon", "Sacred Ibis", "Wild-Turkey", "Scarlet Tanager", "Reed-Bird" (Bearded Tit), "Eagle", "Blue Jay", "Hoopoe", "Fish-Hawk or Osprey", "Sparrow-Hawk", "Crane" (Grus grus), "Fly-Catcher", "Apteryx or Wingless Bird" and "Cormorant". The text is variable, sometimes containing interesting historical allusions and/or elements of life history, but usually uninformative. The Blue Jay is clearly copied from Wilson's illustration. The woodcuts are not unattractive, however, their lack of color detracts significantly from their appeal, particularly since there is no descriptive section of text.
This work is not listed in any of the usual printed bibliographies nor in the on-line catalogs for Cornell, Kansas, LSU, Harvard, Yale, Trinity, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the AMNH nor the NYPL. Harvard lists nine booklets for children published by Kiggins & Kellogg between 1830 and 1850. Yale lists eight between 1835 and1856. One of these is entitled "The Museum of Birds. It contains eight pages, is 8 cm ( a bona fide miniature) and is said to be ca. 1835 and "1st Series". Trinity lists two books by Kiggins & Kellogg, 1840 and 1858.
King, Ben F., Dickinson, Edward C. (in collaboration with John Darnell, Dr. Ian C. T. Nisbet, Dr. David Wells; illustrated by Martin W. Woodcock)
A field guide to / the birds / of south-east / Asia / covering / Burma, Malaya, Thailand, / Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos / and Hong Kong 19.1 x 13.1 cm. [A]8B-2G8[$1 signed]; 240 ll. Pp. [1-5]6-480. Original turquoise cloth with great hornbill design on upper cover and spine, black lettering on spine. End paper maps. Pictorial dust jacket indicating this is J of "The International Series", titles A-J listed on lower wrapper. Original price of $17.50 on upper flap. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975. Laid in loosely are: a card with printed illustration and signed manuscript note from Woodcock to RLS; a business card and typed letter signed from Dickinson to RLS; the title page is inscribed and signed by Ben King.
1, Half-title; 2, blank; 3, title; 4, dedication to Herbert G. Deignan; "First American Edition"; ISBN 0-395-19113-0; printed in Great Britain; 5, contents; 8, blank; 9, acknowledgements; 11, introduction; 18, how to identify birds including topography of a bird with diagrams; 25, glossary; 28, clubs, journals; 29, systematic text, species 1-1190, Gavia stellata-Melophus lathami; 440 additional species (2); 441, appendix, birds found in Taiwan which haven't occurred in the area covered by the book (59 species); Hainan (three species); 443, annotated bibliography (about 110 entries); 448, index of English and Latin names. Contains plates 1-64 (32 colored), so numbered on facing letter-press, printed in half-tone on 32 leaves and supposedly displaying1082 species. Plates not included in pagination; letter press with running text on verso included in pagination. Also contains unnumbered text line illustrations, about 10 strictly anatomical, others displaying about 165 species.
This very ambitious undertaking provided a major impetus for exotic bird-watching and international interest in conservation. The book expanded the notion of area coverage by a field guide from an entity with political boundaries to a biogeographical area. The text for each of approximately 1200 species includes a length measurement, a concise section on field identification, and notes on status, range, habitat and voice. Virtually all of the species are illustrated, about half in color. The coloring is not always satisfactory.
The work was reprinted several times through 1991.
This printing listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity and Yale.
Kacho gashu (Ka-cho-ga Shu / Shunmei Kinzan fide Trinity)(album of flower and bird drawings) 24.9 x 17.9 cm. 29 externally-conjugate leaves as described below. Text and plates printed in black-ruled frames 20.7 x 17.9 cm. Original publisher's tan card wrappers with Japanese-style purple stitching. White paper labeling piece with Japanese characters on upper (right) card cover. Kyoto, Baifu (publisher), Sanden Unsodo (publishing firm), Meiji 36(1903, first edition).
First two pages of text followed by 56 colored woodblock plates with colophon on inside of lower (left) wrapper.
This an exceptionally fine and fresh copy, said by the dealer to be from the Robert Muller Collection. All of the plates depict flowers, in most cases (33) with birds, but also with insects, a rabbit and a carp. The coloring is partially by hand, and while not completely truthful to nature, is unusually vibrant for a book of this kind. The registration in the color printing is often far from perfect but the book is very attractive.
Trinity list this book under "Shunmei, Ginzan" .
Kirby, Mary (1817-1893, also referred to as Mrs. Mary Gregg) and Elizabeth (1823-1873)
Beautiful Birds / In Far-Off Lands: / Their Haunts and Homes 18.1 x 13.0 cm. [1]42-344[$1 signed]; 136 ll. Pp. [i-v]vi[vii]viii[9]10-269[270](2, advertisements for other works published by Nelson). Publisher’s red cloth elaborately decorated in black and gilt with gilt Quetzal on upper cover and gilt Paradise Flycatcher on spine. AEG. London, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872.
i, Half-title; iii, title; v, preface; vii, contents; 9, text. Contains 16 unnumbered chromolithographic plates. This copy lacks front free endpaper.
This work was intended to stimulate the imagination of children and it would have been very effective for me had I read it during childhood. It deals with particularly beautiful and exotic families of birds such as birds-of-paradise, parrots, trogons and hummingbirds. It describes their habits and habitats by painting exciting, well informed and accurate word pictures with frequent references to A. R. Wallace whose great work on the Malay Archipelago had been published only three years prior to this book. The chromolithographs are attractive and appealing although several are out of register. Two of them have small amounts of liquid gold which is unusual for chromolithographs. Artist, lithographer and printer are not identified.
Trinity, p. 104(Gregg) and 137(Kirby); Wood, p. 368(Kirby). Unlisted by Yale, Nissen.
Kirkman, F(rederick)B(ernulf Beever)(1869-1945) and Jourdain, F(rancis)C(harles)R(obert)(1865-1940)
British Birds 25.8 x 19.4 cm. Pp. [i-iv]v-xvi(1, blank)1-209[210]; 227 pages. Original publisher's blue cloth with gilt design, lettering on upper cover, gilt lettering on spine. Pictorial dust jacket. London, Edinburgh, Paris, Melbourne, Toronto, New York, Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1950(1930, 1938, [sixth reprinting of 1938 edition]).
i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title; iv, copyright; v, preface; vii, classification; ix, topography of a bird; x, technical terms; xiii, alphabetical contents; 1, systematic text; 203, forms omitted due to rarity. Contains colored half-tone plates 1-179 of birds, more than 20 plates containing two illustrations and several illustrations depicting several species. These plates are adjacent to their text descriptions and have text of subsequent species on their versos yet are not included in pagination although, of course, the text is. Also contains colored plates 180-197, 201-202 of eggs not included in pagination although their blank obverses are. Plates 198-199, uncolored plates of eggs, are on the opposite sides of a single leaf and one of them is included in pagination. Plate 200, uncolored of nest feathers, is printed on one side only and not included in pagination although its verso is. Thus, 201 pages of plates are not included in pagination and the total pages in the book is 428 or 214 ll if one includes the plates.
The original version of this book was entitled "The British Bird Book" and comprised four immense volumes published by T. C. & E. C. Jack, London, 1911-1913. That book has always been a seller's nightmare because of its unwieldy size and because of the excellence of its competitors of the era. In 1930, Kirkman and Jourdain rewrote the text to a more manageable size, combined it with the old pictures and published it under the Nelson imprint. They updated the work with another edition in 1938 and the present volume is a reprint of that edition. Jack also issued a later smaller edition in a different format.
Although Kirkman and Jourdain were fine ornithologists, the interest of this work has always been mainly in its pictures which, unfortunately, were never produced to a particularly high standard. They featured fine artists of the early 20th century some of whose work was and still isn't fully appreciated. A. W. Seaby, for example, has always been highly regarded by ornithological artists, yet published relatively few pictures. His work reminds me much of L. P. Robert. The present collection represents his major published opus and he was responsible for more than 130 of the pictures. Winifred Austen and G. Edward Collins are also well represented and there are also pictures of birds by A. Priest, H. Wormald, G. E. Lodge and H. Gronvold.
The text of this book covers adequately for each species Description, Range, Nest & Eggs, Food and Notes.
Some edition of this book is present in all ornithological collections. Neither the original, nor any of the other editions is particularly uncommon.
Kittlitz, F.(riedrich)H.(einrich) von (1799-1874)
Über / einige Vögel von Chili / beobachtet / im / März un d Anfang April 1827 (and Fortzetzung) 26.4 x 21.4 cm. [223-224]23-244251; Fortzetzung 604[$1, 2 signed]; 15 ll. Pp. [173]174-94; Fortzetzung [465]466-472. Later blue pebble cloth-backed marbled boards with gilt title and ownership designation on upper cloth. Endpapers recently renewed. (St. Petersburg. Académie impériale des sciences. Mémoires par divers savans, etc., 1831-35) gelesen 3 März, 1830 and Fortzetzung, 10 October, 1834.
Pp 173-194 cover 12 unnumbered species and are accompanied by hand-colored engraved plates I-XII initialed by Kittlitz without further attribution. Pp 465-472 cover species 12-17 and are accompanied by plates 13-17 (sic). The first 12 plates are designated “Mém. des Savans étrangers TI”. The later 5 plates are designated “Mémoires des savans étr. T. II. , on the upper left and “Kittlitz Vögel von Chili” on
upper right.
Kittlitz, a member of the Prussian nobility, was a naturalist-ornithologist, an artist, an explorer and a sailor. He traveled all over the world including as naturalist on the Russian Seniavin expedition on which he collected 314 species of birds that he gave to the Russian Imperial Museum.
In the present work, he describes 17 of those species that he collected in Chili. These include a tinnamou, several ovenbirds, antbirds, flycatchers etc. He considers most or all of these to be new and he provides a very careful description with measurements for each. He also describes, to a certain extent, their habitats and habits. Each is finely illustrated. My favorite is the Tufted Tit-tyrant which I have seen well on several occasions.
Kittlitz also published a very attractive series of 36 colored plates entitled “Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vögel” (Frankfurt, 1832-33)
The present important work appeared in an obscure Russian publication and is rare. OCLC locates eight copies.
Kivirikko, Karl Emil (1870-1947)
Suomen Linnut 28.5 x 22.2 cm. Original blue cloth with gilt spine and gilt eagle decoration on upper cover. Porvoo, Werner Soderstrom Osajeyhtio. Two volumes.
Volume I., 1926. Pp. [I-VI]VII-XV[XVI]1-474; 245 ll. I, Half-title; III, title; V, contents; XIII, introduction; 1, general ornithology; 85, keys and 129 species accounts(1-129) including passerines, swifts, nightjars, coraciformes, woodpeckers, cuckoos and owls. Contains a partly colored map, 305 text illustrations and 13 (of 14, lacking that depicting Tengmalm’s owl, which, though called for in this volume, appears instead in the second) colored plates.
Volume II., 1927. Pp. [I-IV]V-X1-568; 289 ll. I, Half-title; III, title; V, contents; 1, keys and accounts for species 130-294; 535, index of species by number; 539, index of species and genera by Finnish and Latin names; 565, addenda and errata. Contains 424 text figures, 13 uncolored plates and 14, instead of 13 indicated colored plates, the extra one being the Tengmalm’s owl called for in the first volume. All plates in both volumes are unnumbered and not included in the pagination.
This Finnish work represents the second definitive treatise on the birds of Finland, the first, Finland’s Foglar… having been written by M. von Wright and Johann Axel Palmen (Helsingfors, 1859, 1873). The present work is a beautiful production that certainly deserves to be better known. The colored plates done by the four-color process, contain some of the finest published ornithological tableaux that I have ever seen. Most are after Ferdinand von Wright and remind me much of Bruno Liljefors. Those by Matti Karppannen are just as good and the others after H. J. Schulman and the author (1) are also impressive. The uncolored text illustrations are photographs by the author or appropriated from others including Meerwarth and Merikallio, and uncolored reproductions from plates in other works, mainly the Naumann centennial edition. Included amongst these are 50 after J. G. Keulemans that are not included in the exhaustive bibliography given by Coldewey and Tony Keulemans in their biography of the artist. There are also uncolored reproductions of pictures by Kuhnert and Gustav Swenander, the latter appropriated from the great 20th century work on Swedish birds by Rosenius.
Trinity, p. 138. Absent from Yale and McGill catalogs. OCLC locates about six copies.
(The Birds of Japan North Alps) 22.3 x 15.0 cm. In Japanese with bird names in English and Latin as well. Printed right-to-left and along the long axis of the page. The numerals of pagination are Arabic. Pp. (4, title leaf and [?] half-title leaf]1-22(introduction and contents)(2, topographical map printed on one side [western verso])1-243[244](2, colophon). Original ivory-backed tan cloth, gilt spine. Tokyo, 1937.
Contains eight colored plates (printed on one side only and not included in pagination), seven of birds (two of which are by Kobayshi, the others undesignated but clearly by a different artist) and one of eggs. The colored plates are accompanied by tissue overlays with explanatory letterpress. Also contains full-page uncolored photographic plates 1-36 printed on both sides of 18 leaves and not included in pagination as well as text illustrations 1-108 (mostly photographs) and a large folding table. Housed within original printed cardboard box.
I haven’t been able to find reference to this in any of the standard bibliographies nor in sales catalogs where it might be expected such as that on the Japanese ornithological books in the Bradley Martin Library. The latter did contain a three-volume work by the same author, The Birds of Japan, published in 1952, which I also saw in 1993 at the Philadelphia auction of John Griswold’s ornithological library. The present work, like that one, appears well produced and authoritative. It is cited in the bibliography (p. CXIII) of Taka-Tsukasa’s The Birds of Nippon (1932-1943)
Absent from Trinity and Yale catalogs.
Klein, J. K. = Jacobi Theodori (1685-1759)
Ova avium / plurimarum / ad naturalem magnitudinem / delineata / et genuinis coloribus picta = Zammlung / verschiedener / Vögel Eyer / in natürliche Grösse / und mit lebendigen Farben / geschildert und beschrieben 24.8 x 19.7 cm. Laid paper, 4to configuration. Catchwords. A-D4E2 [$1, 2 signed saved for “A” in which the first leaf is not signed but the next two are designated “A2” and “A3”.]; 18 ll. Pp. [1-3]4-36. Text in parallel columns of Latin and gothic German. Contemporary quarter brown calf with machine-decorated brown board sides. Spine with five raised bands, gray leather gilt labeling piece in second compartment, gilt “V. G.” at base. Red edges. Marbled endpapers. Leipzig, Königsberg, Mittau, / Johann Jacob Kanter, 1766.
1, Title; 2, poem; 3, forward dated 23 December, 1758 with author’s initials; 12, commentary in Latin only, dated July, 1764 and signed Gottfried Reyger; 14, poem; 15, text identifying and describing the illustrated eggs in systematic order. Contains Tab I-XXI, hand-colored engravings depicting 146 eggs. These are presented on folding plates mounted on guards and were drawn, and probably engraved by Gustav Philipp Trautner. Also contains wood cut head and tail pieces.
Klein was Secretary of the Danzig Senate, a highly regarded diplomat and polymath who formed a major natural history collection as well as an important botanical garden. He developed his own system of classification and nomenclature which was much overshadowed by that of his contemporary, Linnaeus. In addition to this book, he also published other ornithological works including “Stemmata Avium”, Leipzig, 1759 and “Verbreitung zu einer vollständigen Vogelhistorie”, Leipzig, 1760.
This book was the second major illustrated work on birds’ eggs, the first having been Giuseppe Zinanni’s “Dell uova nidi e dei degli” (Venice, 1737)containing uncolored illustrations of the eggs of 106 species.
The present work is not rare. OCLC locates more than 40 copies.
Kleinschmidt, O. (tto)(1870-1954)
Berajah / Zoographia infinita / Saxicola Borealis 29.5 x 22.5 cm. In German, but without gothic printing. 1-32x5 [1-3, $1, 2 signed save 11which is unsigned]; 12 ll. Pp. (2, title and blank verso) 1-22. Sewn text and loose plates all loose original publisher’s gray-green printed wrappers. Lieferung 1 (from wrapper). Halle, Verlag von W. Schlüter, 1905. “Duplicate of Library of Congress” stamped on upper cover.
Preliminary leaf, recto, title, verso, blank; 1, Begnung; Unterscheidung un Benennung; 3, Geographische Formen; 6, für Deutschland; 7 Grössenverhältnisse; 9, individuelle Variation; 10, Wandlung des Gefieders; 12, Zug; 16, Eier und Nest. Contains Tafel I-IX on unbound thick stock. I-VI are chromolithographs designated “Steinzeichn von O. Kl” and “Buntdruck u. Controle d. Autors”. VII-IX contain a total of eight uncolored photogravures of habitats. Most are designated “Phot. Spörl” on bottom left and “Dietz’sche Hofbuchdruckerei, Coburg / Buchgewerbliche Kunsto-Anstalten” on right.
This monograph on the Northern Wheater, now called Oenanthe oenanthe, is the first of 45 or 46 articles (1905-1950) that constituted Kleinschmidt’s serial publication, “Berajah”. Kleinschmidt was very knowledgeable and a fine artist as well. Berajah was privately printed and Kleinschmidt seems to have been personally involved with all aspects of its publication, even including the color printing of his lithographs in this article. The monograph is comprehensive and not concerned with his later iconoclastic system of zoological classification in “Formenkreise”. The illustrations are excellent.
This article is the first of the series. All the parts (articles) of Berajah are rare.
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954)
Realgattung Falco Peregrinus. Eine Monographie des Wanderfalken und zugleich eine Studie über das Wesen der Rasse in Freier Natur 30 x 23 cm. Pp. (2, title)1-126(4, Tabelle A, Tabelle B, recto only). Late 20th century cloth-backed boards including a single gray printed wrapper. Halle, 1912 (-1928). The wrapper is labelled as follows: at top, Berajah, / zoographia infinita; center, Realgattung / Falco Peregrinus / Eine Monographie des Wanderfalken und zugleich eine Studie über das Wesen der Rasse in freier Natur; bottom, Alle Rechte vorbehalten / Halle, a. S. / Kommissions Verlag von Gebauer Druckerei und Verlag A.-G. Contains plates I-XLIV (25 colored) and text figs 1-46 (44 and 46 hand-colored)
Otto Kleinschmidt was a Pastor and ornithologist and an excellent ornithological draughtsman with great knowledge of birds. He developed, mainly through the use of ornithological examples, a theory of zoological classification in which animals were arranged in Formenkreise. He considered this system more truthful to nature than the conclusions to be drawn from the arrangements or theories of Linnaeus or Darwin. Kleinschmidt explained his system in a periodical, Berajah zoographia infinita, that he issued privately in 45 or 46 parts from 1905 to 1950. Some parts of this periodical, usually monographs of individual species, were called Falco. The distinction between Berajah (sometimes dated 1905-1937 rather than 1950) and Falco (dated until 1950 in the Trinity catalogue) is not clear in the various citations. The generic term, Falco, for some issues of the periodical should not be confused with Falco Peregrinus, which is the title of this monograph concerning the Peregrine Falcon and its various forms that comprises many parts of the periodical and represents by far its most complete coverage of any species. This monograph seems to have been issued in Lieferungen of Berajah, each containing four leaves (eight pages) or a multiple thereof. The dates of issue are at the upper left of each page as follows: title and pp. 1-6, 1912; 7-14, 15-22, 1914; 23-30, 1915; 31-38, 1916; 39-46, 47-54, 1917; 55-62, 1918; 63-70, 71-78, 1920; 79-86, 1926; 87-94, 95-102, 103-110, 111-119, 119-126, Tabelle A and Tabelle B, 1927. The entire text is devoted to detailed descriptions of the varous forms of the Peregrine Falcon and their interrelationsips.
The illustrations in this work are of considerable interest and were produced with great craftsmanship. Of the 44 plates, dated 1912-1928, 11 are hand-colored lithographs after Kleinschmidt depicting either heads or full figures of various races of the Peregrine. An additional five are hand-colored lithographs of feathers or feet. Eight are partly hand-colored photogravures of various dead falcons or of their habitat. There is a single print of a fine painting by Bruno Liljefors that is reproduced in color half-tone. Finally, there are 16 plates containing uncolored photogravures and three containing uncolored photographs. The text illustrations are woodcuts by Kleinschmidt and two are hand-colored.
Bradley Martin #1657; Wood, p. 232; Trinity, p. 34, 85. Not in Yale and Ayer catalogues. Citations are to periodical rather than for this rare monograph which was not issued separately and must have been assembled privately.
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954)
Die / Raubvögel / der Heimat / auf 60 farbigen und / 21 schwarzen Tafeln / in einer nach praktischen Gesichtspunkten geordneten / Übersicht ihrer häufigen und ihrer seltenen Vertreter / mit kurzen Erläuterungen ihres Schönheitswertes und / der Grundzüge ihres Wesens und Lebens dargestellt // 6.-10. Tausend 21.3 x 15.7 cm. Pp. [I-V]VI-XV[XVI](1)1-88[89-90]. Original gray cloth with fine falcon vignette and lettering printed in black and henna enclosed in black-ruled frame on upper cover, henna lettering on spine. Leipzig, Quelle & Meyer, (1940 [1934]).
I, Half-title; II, blank; III, title; IV, copyright 1934; printed by Oswald Schmidt, Leipzig; V, introduction dates autumn 1940; XVI, contents; unpaginated page, preface to pictures (plate 1 on verso); 1, part one, regular species; 20, rare species; 47, general considerations including life history; 81, further considerations since first edition; 89, index of German names; 90, publisher's advertisements. Contains; plates 1-81(60 colored) printed in half-tone on both sides of 42 leaves save for three cases of text on obverse; one colored text illustration; five unnumbered, uncolored text illustrations.
This book, first published in 1934 and the author's Singvögel der Heimat, originally published in 1913, are enduring German favorites with the most recent editions appearing in 2003 and 2000, respectively. These two works do not necessitate the cerebration required to interpret Pastor Kleinschmidt's novel method of classification based on "Formenkreise" and they are less technical than his articles in his serial publication, Berajah. In the present work, he describes 46 species of diurnal raptors and owls that can be encountered in Germany and provides an excellent colored plate of each. He also discusses and illustrates various morphologically different forms and subspecies that occur worldwide. For example, he depicts on two adjacent colored plates (56/57) 22 forms of his favorite bird, the peregrine, occurring from Germany to Australia.
In the introduction, dated autumn 1940, he tells us that this second edition (sixth through tenth thousand) contains changes in some details, an added plate, and a few added pages of text. The present edition was apparently published during the second world war and is particularly uncommon. The 1958 edition was called Raubvögel und Eulen der Heimat and was published by a different firm.
AMNH list 1958 edition; Cornell lists 1934 and 1958 editions; Harvard lists 1958 edition. Not listed by Trinity and Yale.
Kleinschmidt, Otto (1870-1954)
Die Singvögel / der Heimat 22.0 x 14.0 cm. The only part of this book with signatures is the explanatory section for the plates, pp. 1-86, printed on matte paper as follows: 1-5864(-64)[$1, 2 signed]; 43 ll. The remainder of the work, text and plates, is printed on glossy paper. The pagination for the entire work is as follows: [I-III]IV-X[XI](1)1-105[106-108](15, advertisements)(1). Bound without wrappers and housed with plates 1-80 in publisher's folding tan linen portfolio-box with black ruled frame, brown printing, and design with blackbird on upper cover. Leipzig, Quelle & Meyer, 1913 (original edition).
I, Title; II, Quotation from Kant; III, introduction; XI, contents; 1-86, explanatory text for colored plates including monographic coverage of 82 species, Passer domesticus-Certhia brachydactyla; 87, nest sites and text for plates 87-100; 101, overview of the life of songbirds; 106, conclusion; 108, index of German names. Contains: plates 1-86, printed on one side only in color half-tone, loose in portfolio and not included in pagination; uncolored plates 87-100 printed on recto in half-tone with facing text from verso of previous plate; these plates not included in pagination but their printed versos included; the plates are photographs of nesting sites either drawn by Kleinschmidt or pictured in the wild; six unnumbered uncolored text half-tone photographs; three unnumbered, uncolored text line sketches.
This is the original edition of one of the most enduring classics of German ornithology, the latest edition having been released in 2000. There is a long-lived complementary volume, Raubvögel der Heimat, originally published in 1934, with the latest edition issued in 2003.
Pastor Kleinschmidt was of philosophical bent and developed his own theory of zoological classification based on "Formenkreise". He published privately, for almost the entire first half of the 20th century, a very interesting journal called Berajah. Quite apart from his theoretical considerations, he knew a great deal about German birds and was a superb artist. Here, he covers 82 species of passerine birds in some detail, devoting a colored plate and a single page of text to each. That page of text is terse and very inclusive. The colored pictures are deceptively simple and extraordinarily effective in capturing the visual essence of the bird through understanding its shape and posture. There is some discussion of rarer birds with their heads illustrated on two colored plates and there are two colored plates of eggs.
Wood, p. 419; Zimmer, p. 355. Also listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale. Amongst these latter, only the AMNH copy is the original edition.
Knight, Ora Willis (1874-1913)
The birds of Maine / with key to and description of the various / species known to occur or to have occurred / in the state, an account of their distribu- / tion and migration , showing their relative / abundance in the various counties of the / state as well as other regions, and con- / tributions to their life histories 22.9 x 15.5 cm. [1-2]153164-16818-438[44]4[$1, 2 signed]; 347 ll. Pp. [i-vii]viii-xvii(1)[19]20-693(1). Original brown cloth with block black lettering and nest design on upper cover, black lettering on spine. Bangor, (by the author), 1908.
i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title; iv, copyright; printer designation: Charles H. Glass & Co., Bangor; v, dedication to wife; vi, blank; vii, introduction; x, blank; xi, list of illustrations; xii, summary of the characters of the orders and families; 19, systematic accounts, Colymbus holboelli-Sialia sialis, comprising about 327, species; 645, hypothetical list (34 forms); 655, summary; 663, bibliography; 672, index of common and scientific names. Contains 27 uncolored photographic plates (including map) displaying 31 images, printed in half-tone on one side only and not included in pagination.
This privately published work is amongst the finest accounts of the birds of a state, and one of the most uncommon. According to Zimmer, there were 300 (numbered) signed copies of a Subscription Edition and only 200 of the regular (unsigned) edition.
This is the first comprehensive book on the birds of Maine. The only detailed previous treatment was the author's own A list of the birds of Maine published in 1897. The present work is far more than a list and is distinguished by the large amount of first-hand information that is presented. For every species, the author attempts to provide: a description of plumage; general distribution; county records; status; arrival and departure dates; a description of nests and eggs; incubation time; food analysis; and description of vocalization. Keys to identification of families and species are also given. The plates, mostly of nests, are from photographs by Knight.
Wood, p. 420; Zimmer, p. 355. Also listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.
Knight, Charles R(obert)(1874-1953) and Hardcastle, Ella
Birds of the / world / for / young people 20.2 x 13.6 cm. Pp.[i-ii]iii-xliv260. Publisher’s decorated blue cloth, gilt panel, partly gilt eagle vignette on upper cover, gilt and black lettering on upper cover and spine. New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company, November, 1909.
i, Title; ii, copyright and publication date; iii, preface; v, contents; viii, blank; ix, list of colour plates; xi, introduction; xliv, publisher’s note; 1, accounts of orders: ostrich-like birds-passerine birds; 233, alphabetical index of English and generic names. Contains color half-tone frontispiece of Bald Eagle after Knight; chromolithographic plates after “ a German artist” enumerated 1-40 in the list of colour plates only and depicting several species each; uncolored half-tone plates 41-42. All plates printed on one side only and not included in pagination. Also contains text figures (line drawings) 1-11.
Knight is widely known for his wonderful painting and dioramas of dinosaurs which are represented in most American museums and have provided the popular image of prehistoric animals. He was also a good ornithological artist and designed several of the plates for Beebe’s pheasants. In this work, he contributed only the fine frontispiece of a Bald Eagle. The remaining plates are poor chromolithographs that display species well drawn by “a German artist”.
The introduction provides a simple but accurate overview of avian biology. The main text describes every order and family of birds briefly and mentions many species, occasionally elaborating more extensively.
Wood, p. 420. Also listed by Cornell but not by AMNH, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.
Field Key / to the / Land Birds 18.2 x 12.2 cm. Pp. (6)[1]2-55(1); 31 ll. Original green cloth with gilt Barn Swallow on upper cover, gilt lettering on upper cover and spine. Boston, Bradlee Whidden, 1899. Produced by Rockwell and Churchill Press, Boston.
[i], Half-title; [ii], blank; [iii], title; [iv], copyright; [v], contents; [vi], blank; 1, text; 53, index. Contains hand-colored plates I-IX printed on one side only, at the front of the volume and not included in pagination. Also contains approximately 30 unnumbered, uncolored text illustrations.
This little volume is often said to be the first intended field guide to bird identification. It includes 155 "Land Birds" each of which is illustrated in color on one of the nine plates presumably drawn by the author. They may be wood engravings and they were certainly colored by hand. There are numerous individual figures on each plate and they are rather crude productions. The text is organized taxonomically and each species is given a number. The plates are organized by size ("birds as large or larger than a crow") and within a given size by some sort of color key ("birds the size of a sparrow, bright colored"). Because of the different organization of text and plates, it is very difficult to go from the text for a species to its illustration. The text is variable, apparently dependent on the author's first-hand knowledge of the species. It is always quite superficial but does give the total length and a very brief description.
Knobel also wrote field guides to various plants, insects and reptiles and amphibia. He even called some of the little volumes "field guides". W. J. Gordon, who did the first field guide to English birds in 1892, also did similar guides to various other natural history subjects and Roger Tory Peterson later edited a large series of such guides although he, himself concentrated mainly on those relating to birds.
Zimmer, p. 358. Absent from Wood, Trinity, Yale. Present in on-line catalogs of Cornell and the New York Public Library but absent from those of Harvard and the American Museum of Natural History although the latter two collections contain many other works by this author.
Field key / to the / land birds 18.3 x 12.0 cm. 3 PL [1]2-55(1); 31 ll. Original publisher’s red cloth with gilt lettering on upper cover and spine and gilt design of barn swallow on upper cover. Original tan dust jacket with black printing on upper cover ans spine and black design of barn swallow on upper cover. Boston, Bradlee Bradlee Whidden, 1899.
First preliminary leaf, recto, half-title, verso blank; second preliminary leaf, recto, title; verso, Rockwell and Churchill Press, Boston; third preliminary leaf, recto, contents, verso, blank; 1, descriptions of 155 species; 53, index (of English names). Contains hand-colored woodcut plates I-IX printed on one side each of nine leaves and placed at the beginning of the volume. Also contains more than 30 unnumbered, uncolored text illustrations.
This is my second copy of what I consider to be the first field guide to North American birds. The dust jacket is a remarkable survival. The colored plates depict the birds based on their sizes. Most of the 155 species are Passerines but there are also game birds, raptors, cuckoos, woodpeckers, kingfishers, goatsuckers and hummingbirds. The text is brief, usually consisting of English and Latin names, a length measurement and a description. The hand-colored figures are fair but some of the text illustrations are quite good.
OCLC lists more than 30 localities.
Kobayashi, Keisuke (1908) (illustrated by Takashi Miyamoto)
Genshoku Nihon chõrui zukan Birds of Japan / in / natural colors 21.0 x 15.0 cm. Text in Japanese. Pp. I-X1-204[205(1)(4, advertisements). Original publisher's black cloth-covered boards with gilt Japanese characters on upper cover and spine, colored photograph of ptarmigan mounted in sunken frame (8.1 x 8.1 cm) on upper cover. Pictorial dust jacket. Pictorial endpapers. Preserved in publisher's printed cardboard slipcase with mounted photographs on each cover. Osaka, Hoikusha, 1963.
Title leaf not paginated, printed on glossy paper as plates with green tinted photograph of stork at nest; verso, blank; I-II, introduction; III-VI, preliminary matter including several line drawings anatomical parts and bird topography; VII, contents including systematic index of families; 1-142, species accounts, Corvus corax-Phaesianus soemmerringii, comprising species 1-425; 143-177, chart summarizing eight parameters for species 1-425; 178, index of names in Japanese; 187, index of names in English; 196, index of names in Latin; 205, publication data with stamp. Contains colored plates 1-64 printed in half-tone on both sides of 32 leaves and illustrating all species. Also contains a few text line maps and uncolored, unnumbered text line drawings additionally illustrating about 102 species including a full page of flying raptors.
The original printing, published in 1956, was probably the first really well illustrated field guide for Japanese birds, although I have a very small format, poorly printed guide resembling those by Chester A. Reed (published) by Matsumura that probably antedates it by a few years. The bird figures are very well done and the colored plates well printed.
Original printing listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity. Yale list 1962 printing.
Koenig Alexander (Ferdinand)(1858-1940), Nicoll, Michael J.(ohn)(1880-1925)
Birds Egypt 22.7 x 14.7 cm. Brown pebbled cloth with spine divided into five compartments by blind rules. Gilt lettering in second compartment. A volume so titled containing five publications including two inscribed author's separates in plain original henna wrappers from The Ibis by Nicoll and three Sonderhefte from the Journal für Ornithologie in their original printed gray green wrappers by Koenig. The volume contains the bookplate of Harry Forbes Witherby, the publisher-ornithologist, on the upper paste-down and has a typed contents leaf entitled Birds of Egypt bound before the articles.
Nicoll, Michael J. Contributions / to the / ornithology of Egypt (from title page) No. I.-Lake Menzaleh (from first text page). Dual pagination, (1)490-510, 1-22. "From The Ibis (London) for July 1908"(title page). 1, Title page; 2, text presenting an annotated list of 86 species.
Nicoll, Michael J. Contributions to the ornithology of Egypt.-No. II. Birds of / the province of Giza. Part 1. Dual pagination, 285-302, 1-18. "From The Ibis (London) for April 1909" (from page 1). 1, text presenting annotated list of 68 species. Contains plate IV, a hand-colored lithograph after H. Grönvold by West, Newman imp.
Koenig, Alexander Die / Saenger (Cantores) / Aegyptens. (from title page) Journal / für / Ornithologie published Berlin, 1 September, 1924 by R. Friedländer & Sohn (from upper wrapper). π81-178184(-184)[$1, 2 signed]; 147 ll. Pp. (2)[i-iii]iv-xiv[1-3]4-277[278]. π1r, article title; π1v, blank; i, dedication; ii, blank; iii, note to reader; 1-2, blank; 3-249, systematic text describing species #85-151, Chiff-chaff-Desert Horned Lark; 249, title page: Vogelskizzen vom Nil, / von seiner Mündung bis zu seinem / Quellflüssen.;250, blank; 251, text, apparently a presentation at the 41st yearly convention of the D.(eutsche) O.(rnithologische) G.(esellschaft), Berlin, 6 May, 1923. 278, printer's designation: Otto Dornblüth, Berlin. Contains two unnumbered plates after F. Neubar reproduced in collotype by A. Frisch of Berlin, one colored, one uncolored.
Koenig, Alexander Ein weiterer Teilbeitrag / zur / Avifauna Aegyptiaca, / enthaltend de Ordnungen / der Kegelschnäbler (Conirostres, / der Tauben ( Columbae), / der Scharr- oder Hühnervögel (Rassores) / und / drei Vertreten aus der Ordnung/ der Wat- oder Sumpfvögel (Grallatores) from title page. JFO, 20 Oktober, 1926 (from upper wrapper). π1-98104; 77 ll. Pp. [1-3]4-152[153-154]. 1, emendation explaining new interpretation necessitating that the Desert Horned Lark number must be changed from 151 to 152 because of the addition of another species of pipit; 7, die Kegelschnäbler, species 153-156, Egyptian (House) Sparrow-Amandave; 45, die Tauben, species 157-159, Schimpers (Rock) Pigeon-Isabelle (sic) Turtle Dove; 71, die Scharr- oder Hühnervögel, species 160-163, Senegal Sand-grouse-Quail; 109, die Stelz- oder Watvögel, speices 164- 166, Common Pratincole-Aegyptian Plower (sic), including 28 pages devoted to the latter, the Egyptian Plover; 154, printer's designation. Contains colored collotype plates I-VI after Neubar inserted between pp. 152 and [153]. These plates each contain a thin leaf of descriptive text not included in pagination.
Koenig, Alexander Fortsetzung und Schluss der / Watvögel (Grallatores) Aegyptens (from article title page) JFO, 20 Oktober, 1928 (from upper wrapper). π1-19820; 157 ll. Pp. (2)[1-3]4-311[312]. π1r, journal title page; π1v, blank; 1, article title page; 2, blank; 3, text, species 167-218, Macqueens Bustard-Avocet; 307, summary and analysis of Grallatores (wading birds, roughly) of Egypt; 312, printer's designation. Contains colored collotype plates I-III as parts of single folded sheet with folded tissue guard, and one leaf of explanatory letter-press not included in pagination.
This is an important volume from Witherby's library. Nicoll is best known for Nicoll's Birds of Egypt, put together posthumously (1930) by Richard Meinhertzhagen and considered the most comprehensive treatment of Egyptian birds in English. However, Koenig's treatise on the birds of Egypt, his most ambitious project, was much more exhaustive, but was unfortunately never finished or assembled into a single work and was published almost entirely in the Journal für Ornithologie which was issued in a very small print run. The exception was Die Vögel am Nil Zweiter Band Die Raubvögel, a beautiful book which he published privately in 1936. The present three articles represent a large fraction of what he published on Egyptian birds in the JFO, covering species 85-218. Species 1-84 were covered in six standard-length articles appearing the JFO 1907-1921. There was also another Sonderheft in 1932 that covered species 219-257 and was apparently the last of the series. Koenig founded the Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn and in 1964 that Museum published an exceedingly attractive work called "Alexander Koenigs Reisen am Nil" that contained 20 superb colored plates including six by Keulemans that Koenig had commissioned for his work on Egyptian birds but had not published. I believe that these were the last plates of Keulemans to remain unpublished.
The Journal für Ornithologie is the first of the "modern" ornithological periodicals having been started in 1853, a few years before The Ibis. There was a contemporary German journal, Naumannia with which it merged around 1860. There had also been a much earlier, but short-lived German serial publication, Ornis, edited by C. L. Brehm in the 1820s. The "Sonderhefte" were special extra issues devoted to intensive scholarly coverage of specific subjects. They were comparable to the "Special Supplements" of The Ibis.
Anker describes these three Sonderhefte (#s 266-268) as well as the last of the series(#268).
Avifauna Spitzbergensis / Forschungsreisen nach der Bären-Insel / und dem Spitzbergfen-Archipel, mit ihren / Faunistischen und floristischen Ergebnissen. 31.3 x 26.1 cm. π61-364374(-374); 153 ll. Pp. (4)[VII]VIII(2)IX-X(2)1-294. Blue-green straight grained leather with central buckram insert on upper cover containing, in bas relief, a gilt decoration of Little Auks copied from the frontispiece by Archibald Thorburn. AEG. Privately published by the author, Bonn, 1911. Printed by W. Büxenstein, Berlin.
π1r, title; π1v, blank; π2r, dedication to Herman Schalow; π2v, blank; π3r-π3v, Vorwort; π4r, Inhalts-Übersicht; π4v, blank; π5r, Verzeichnis der Textbilder..Heliogravuren; π5v, Verzeichnis der Farbentafeln; π6r, section subtitle; π6v, blank; 1, Einleitung; 5, erste Reise, 1905; 15, zweite Reise, 1907; 65, dritte Reise, 1908; 115, ornithologische Bibliographie; 135, Verzeichnis..Bären-Insel Vogelarten; 136, Verzeichnis…Spitzbergen..Vogelarten; 138, allgemeine Bemerkungen; 140, die Avifauna…; 271, Land-Arthropoden…gesammelt; 287, Verzeichnis..eingesammelten Phanerogamen und Gefäss-Kryptogamen; 289, Inhaltsverzeichnis. Contains 63 unnumbered text photographs and 26 unnumbered helio(photo)gravure plates by Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co. Leipzig, the plates mounted on guards. Contains text figures 1-5, 1-4 (drawn) and 1(photograph) of arthropods. Contains colored frontispiece after Thorburn and 10 colored plates of birds after Keulemans in collotype by A. Frisch of Berlin. Contains one chromolithographic plate after Keulemans and 12 chromolithographic plates of birds’ heads after H. Schulze by W. Greve of Berlin. Contains nine colored collotype plates and one chromolithographic plate of eggs after G. Krause by Frisch and Greve respecitvely. The frontispiece and plates I-XXXIII are all mounted on guards. Contains linen-backed map in pocket on rear pastedown.
Koenig was a man of exacting standards and possessed the wealth to promote them so his books are all privately published and superbly produced with the best craftsmanship of the era. This volume is one of 200 copies of the de luxe edition of this work which describes the results of three collecting trips he took to the European high Arctic. He wrote the narrative and Otto le Roi did the systematic text covering 58 species of birds that they either collected or considered reliably observed in the past in the areas they covered. Le Roi also wrote briefly on the insects and plants that were collected by the expedition. Some bibliographers have mistakenly thought that le Roi was a synonym for Koenig but there is a photograph of the two men together in a later work.
This is an outstanding production with magnificent photographic and drawn illustrations. Thorburn’s frontispiece of Dovekies (Little Auks) is amongst the finest of ornithological tableaux and ranks with his Himalayan scenes in Beebe’s Pheasants.
Measurements are presented for every specimen that was collected and virtually every egg that they encountered is beautifully depicted. A fine bibliography of the ornithology of the area is also given.
This copy contains several ownership inscriptions on the title page and some highly informed marginalia in pencil.
Trinity, p. 139; Wood, p. 421; Yale, p. 160; Zimmer, p. 359.
Die Vögel am Nil / von seiner Mündung bis in das Gebiet seiner / Quellflüsse (Weisser Nil) auf Grund eigener Reisen / und Beobachtungen in Wort und Bild dargestellt. Zweiter Band. Die Raubvögel 28.5 x 22.3 cm. 162-234242[$1, 2 signed]; 96 ll. Pp. (4, title and subtitle leaves)[1-5]6-188. Original tan printed wrappers. Bernburg, Otto Dornblüth'schen Druckerei, 1936 (privately published, Bonn, 1936).
1, Foreword; 3, list of plates; 5-188, text. Contains 56 plates (Tafeln I-XLIX, XLIXa, L-LVI) including 45 colored of birds, 7 colored of eggs, 3 uncolored of birds, and one, XLIXa, uncolored photographic. All plates are not included in pagination and all save XLIXa have single unpaginated guard leaves containing explanatory letter-press. Also contains two unnumbered text illustrations.
Koenig, an aristocrat of means and taste, was a great student of North African ornithology and was particularly interested in Egypt. Most of his work was published in the Journal für Ornithologie. He paid particular attention to the presentation of his work which meant that it was usually privately published in a small print run and that he selected the best artists and art printers. The present work is exceptionally beautiful. Most of the illustrations were after F. Neubar, O. Kleinschmidt and E. de Maes with single examples after Keulemans and Paul Preiss. Neubar's plates were reproduced in fine color half-tone; those of de Maes and Keulemans in colored collotype by A. Frisch of Berlin; and those of Kleinschmidt in chromolithography by E. Köhler of Gera-U.
The work covers 67 species of diurnal and nocturnal raptors which are to be found in North Africa and/or along the White Nile. For most there is a scrupulous review of the literature regarding the distribution, forms and taxonomy in Africa and a meticulous description, sometimes encompassing virtually every feather. There is a varying amount of information, dependent on the author's personal experience, concerning behavior, nesting and life history. Koenig's interests were remarkably similar to those of Carlos von Erlanger, his near contemporary who died prematurely. Their researches continued and expanded those carried out by a succession of distinguished19th century German explorers and ornithologists including Hemprich and Ehrenberg, Rüppell, and von Heuglin.
Trinity, p. 139; Yale, p. 160.
Koepcke, Dr. Maria (1924-1971)
Las Aves / del departamento de Lima 19.3 x 13.5 cm. Pp. [1-2]3-118[119-128] original publisher’s faux green leather with gilt lettering to spine. Green, black and white pictorial dust jacket with yellow printing on upper cover. Endpaper maps. Editado por Dr. Maria Koepcke / Casilla 5129 Miraflores (Lima) / Lima, 1964. Presentation copy, neatly inscribed and signed by author on title page.
1, Title; 2, copyright 1964; Confeccion de los clisés Graphic Arts S. A.; Impreso en los Talleres Gráfica Morsom S. A., Lima; 3, prologue; 4, contents; 6, introduction; 8, topography of a bird; 9, species accounts, Spheniscus humboldti-Pipraeidea melanota; 115, bibliography (about 50 references); 118, Spanish. Generic and specific indexes. Contains about 315 (title page claims 313) uncolored unnumbered text line sketches by the author.
Peru has arguably the largest national avifauna in the world. However, this book was the first to promote its avifauna at the popular level. Until its appearance, information about Peruvian birds was to be found in very rare old books such as that of Taczanowski in the late 19th century or in works concerned with other South American national avifaunas. The work provides a brief description and status for about 315 species each of which is illustrated with a very good line drawing by the author.
Koepcke was head of the section of ornithology and mammology at the Museum of Natural History and taught at the University of San Marcos in Lima. She described two new species and 10 new subspecies.
An edition in English of this book was published in 1970 by the Livingston Publishing Company, Narbeth Pennsylvania and its appearance led to the emergence of Peru as a major destination for international birders and ornithologists.
This original edition is listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard and Yale but not by Trinity.
OCLC locates about 33 copies.
Koford, Carl B. (1915-1979)
The / California condor / research report No. 4 / of the / National Audubon Society 26.2 x 19.7 cm. Pp. [I-IV]V-XIII(1)1-154. Binder’s blue green buckram with gilt lettering to spine. TEG. Original printed gray wrappers bound at rear. New York, National Audubon Society, 1953.
I, Half-title; II, list of antecedent reports; III, title including original price of $3.00; IV, copyright 1953; Dartmouth Printing Company, Hanover, New Hampshire; V, foreword by John H. Baker; VI, blank; VII, preface by Alden H. Miller; IX, contents; X, blank; XI, list of illustrations; 1, introduction; 7, distribution; 21, population; 25, general activities; 25, perching and roosting; 41, flight; 55, feeding habits; 67, food supply; 73, drinking and bathing; 77, mating; 81, nests and eggs; 87, behavior of nesting adults; 111, behavior of nestlings and juveniles; 125, associates at nests and roosts; 129, conservation; 139, appendix including records, tables, growth of young; 151, literature (almost 200 references). Contains photographic half-tone plates 1-31 printed on 12 glossy unpaginated leaves, uncolored save for frontispiece (plate 1). Also contains text figures 1-15, mostly graphs.
This is another of the classic monographs sponsored in mid-century by the Audubon Society for then endangered species including the ivory-billed woodpecker, now (2006) probably extinct, the roseate spoonbill, now quite common, the whooping cranes, still endangered but somewhat recovered, and the condor, now being bred and introduced into the wild after the last few truly wild birds were taken into captivity.
Listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.
(Köhler, Eugen [fl. 1895-1905])
Nützliche Vogelarten und ihre Eier 20.6 x 13.6 cm. π41-4854[$1, 2 signed]; 40 ll. Pp. [I-III]IV-VII(VIII)[1]2-69(3, publisher's advertisements). Original publisher's green cloth with black paneling, printing and illustration on upper cover, black printing on spine. Reticulated edges. Halle, a. S., Hermann Gisenius (1904).
I, title; II, rights statement; III, foreword dated Nov, 1904 and describing improvements of this edition; V, index; VIII, abbreviations for references; 1, overview of orders and families; 13, Singvögel; 48, Schwirrvögel; 50, Sitzfüssler; 51, Klettervögel; 57, Raubvögel; 63, official code of bird protection issued by ministry of land management, Berlin, spring, 1904. Contains 25 unnumbered chromolithographic plates, most unsigned.
Köhler was the proprietor of a publishing and printing and chromolithography firm that published a number of ornithological books at the turn-of-the-century, by far the most important being the centenary edition of Naumann, but also several small ones like this one about the usefulness of birds and their protection. These books kept being issued in new editions and printings with the Gisenius imprint, presumably reflecting the acquisition of Köhler's business by Gisenius. According to Gisenius, in the foreword dated Nov, 1904, the present edition has been improved by devoting more space to describing the life histories of the selected species including their food, as well as to improving the quality of the chromolithographs. Casey Woods lists an edition of 1898 and I have seen one advertised with an 1895 imprint which I believe was the original. Wood writes that the work was known as "Koehler's useful birds". The title page tells us that this copy is "41 bis 48 45 Tausend" so there were once a great many in circulation. The work provides descriptions and life histories for about 56 species, most of which are illustrated on 25 chromolithographic plates. The artist is not identified but two bear a signature that may be "O. Niffelhäuser". Köhler published a companion work, Schädliche Vogelarten, which was also later issued under the Gisenius imprint.
This work ends with a sort of appendix containing the text of a German code on bird protection. Most of the measures it advocates were originally proposed by Count von Berlepsch in his Der gesamte Vogelschutz, yet again originally published by Köhler in 1899 and issued in many editions and printings by Gisenius, and later other publishers as well.
This is another example of a small German turn-of-the-century ornithological book with nice chromolithographs that was produced in large numbers yet is rare in collections and libraries of English speaking areas.
Wood, p. 421. Unlisted by AMNH, BMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Oxford, Trinity, Yale, Zimmer.
(Köhler, Eugen, [fl. 1895-1905])
Köhler's / schädliche / Vogelarten "3. Verbesserte Auflage 13. Bis 18 Tausend" 20.7 x 14.0 cm. π1-64[$1, 2 signed]; 25 ll. Pp. (4)[1]2-44(2, advertisements). Original publisher's decorated brown boards with design in black of sea eagle on upper cover. Reticulated edges. Halle, Verlag von Hermann Gesenius, 1902 (from dated forward). πr, Wood-engraved decorated title page; πv, blank; 11r-11v, forward to new edition dated August, 1902; 1, text; 43, index. Contains 24 unnumbered and undesignated chromolithographs depicting 29 species.
The forward explains to the reader that the "injurious" designation is simply meant to emphasize by contrast how useful are the species presented previously in Köhler's Nutzliche Vogelarten, and how all birds are interesting and worthy of study. Descriptions and life histories including nidification and food habits are presented for each of the 29 species that are considered. The utility theme was a common one in popular ornithological works of this era. According to Casey Wood, the present work, of which this is the third edition, was apparently first published in 1896.
Two of the plates bear the initials of Keulemans (this work is not listed in Feathers to Brush) and another two those of Kleinschmidt. Moreover, I recognize several that are adapted from Goering and from Naumann. All of these seem to have been taken, with minor modifications, from the Naumann centennary edition, published and lithographed by Köhler's firm around the same time.
Included with the volume are three interesting ephemeral items. One is a membership card in a bird conservation society. Another is a separate, with its own cover and pagination, of a chapter from the seventh edition (1903) of Der gesamte Vogelschutz written by Hans Berlepsch and published by Gesenius. The original of this work was published in 1899 by Köhler. This is the first time I have ever seen a separate for a single chapter of a published work. The third item is two conjoined leaves, each 32.0 x 23.5, containing advertisements for various works published by Gesenius. These include Nützliche Vogelarten and Der gesamte Vogelschutz.
The relationship of the Köhler and Gesenius publishing firms is apparently a close one and it may be that Gesenius bought out Köhler and continued to use his facilities.
These turn-of-the-century German books with interesting chromolithographs were apparently printed in large numbers, yet 100 years later are quite difficult to obtain.
Wood, p. 421. Absent from Trinity, Yale and Ayer catalogs.
Ptitsy / Stroiteli (bird builders) 26.7 x 24.4 cm. Unpaginated. Six stapled printed leaves, the twelve pages of which each contain a chromlithographic tableau depicting a single species and its nest. Title printed in blue, artist's name in red on first page. Other publishing information on first and last page. Moskva, G. F. Mirimanov, 1927.
This book, designed for children, is an extremely unusual work in that it contains chromolithographs on both sides of leaves that also contain Cyrillic printed text. The pictures depict an (Eurasian) oriole; a tailorbird; a sunbird; a (greater) flamingo; a (great-crested) grebe; a community of weaver birds; a (Rhinoceros) hornbill; a (barn) swallow; an ovenbird (hornero); a bower bird; a hummingbird (coquette); and a hammerkop. The birds were selected on the basis of their complicated nests which are also pictured.
The birds are extremely well drawn and it seems clear that the artist had ornithological experience. Christine Jackson, in her Dictionary of Bird Artists..(1999), lists (p. 320) an artist named Alexander Komerova (1832-1904), apparently a Russian general who painted 11 plates for S. A. Buturlin's Limicolae of the Russian Empire (1902) and whose work was used posthumously for Dementiev's Ptitsy Sovjetskogo Sojusa (Birds of the Soviet Union, 1951). It is possible that the artist for the present work, A. Komerova, may be his daughter.
This work seems to be rare. The only copy I could locate is in the Houghton Library at Harvard, Typ 958.27.496 F. The work is unlisted in on-line catalogs from the AMNH, the Smithsonian, Yale, Trinity and Cornell. It is also unlisted in the various printed bibliographies and catalogs concerned with ornithology and natural history that I consult. However, its absence from these sources may reflect its status as a book for children rather than its rarity. On the other hand, OCLC locates only the Houghton copy despite the allegation on the verso of the last leaf that 15,000 copies were originally printed.
Körner, M.(agnus Peter)(1808-1864)
Two separate volumes in one. 23.5 x 20.0 cm. Near contemporary fine full gilt ruled black morocco with upper cover containing large inlaid gilt green morocco lettering piece within ornamental gilt roll panel design. Spine faded brown with five raised ridges, gilt tan morocco lettering pieces in second and fourth compartments, all six compartments gilt-ruled. Gilt dentelles with roll design. Floral patterned endpapers. AEG. Bradley Martin copy.
Skandanaviska Foglar / Tecknade efter Naturen, Lithografierade och Utgifne / af / M. Körner. Lund, 1839-1846 (by the author). π2[1]42-34[$1 signed]; 14 ll. Pp. (4), [1-3]4-22[23-24]. π1r, lithographed and printed title page; π1v, blank; π2r, dedication; π2v, expanded dedication; 1, list of plates with their avian subjects and minor commentary; 23, index of Swedish names. Contains 62 hand-colored lithographed plates 1-40, 42, 42-57, 48, 59-62, by the author. The erratic numbering is due to errors of the printer. The plates are not repeated.
Skandinaviska Dägger / Tecknade efter Naturen / Lithografierade, Tryckte och Utgifne / af / M. Körner. Lund, 1855. Texten Tr. i Berlingska Boktryckeriet No signatures. Pp. Lithographed printed title page with blank verso; [1]2-6; 1-5, list of plates with their mammalian subjects and minor commentary; 6, index of Swedish names.
The first work concerns birds and covers 270 species. The second deals with 65 mammalian species. The author was an artist specializing in natural history, perhaps best known for his ornithological illustrations in Sven Nilsson's Illuminerade Figurer till Skandinaviens Fauna (Lund, 1832-1840). In the present work, he contributes his own very brief text that gives information about the status of the species in Scandinavia as well as reference to Nilsson's earlier work. According to Anker (#271), the ornithological book was issued in 10 parts.
I became interested in this work because of a comment that I read about it (p. 84) in The Bird Illustrated (1988): "…his lithographs rival the finest engravings in their linear detail". The minute detail in these carefully drawn and colored lithographs is unique and these atlases are among the best that deal with Scandinavian fauna.
The ornithological book is rather rare. It is listed by Wood, (p. 422) and Yale but not by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Zimmer. The work on mammals is reputed to be equally scarce.
Kortright, Francis H. (illustrated by T.(errence) M. Shortt)
The ducks geese, and swans / of North America / A vade mecum / for the naturalist and the sportsman 22.0 x 15.2 cm. Pp. (2)[i-iv]v-vii(1)viii(separate folded and paginated leaf of family tree with blank obverse)1-476. Original publisher’s blue pebbled cloth with blind frame on upper cover, gilt lettering to spine. Color pictorial dust jacket. Washington, American Wildlife Institute, 1942 (first printing). Signed inscription on free front endpaper by Harold S. Peters, well known ornithological author of Birds of Newfoundland and other titles.
Unpaginated leaf: recto, half-title; verso, blank; i, title; ii, copyright; iii, contents; iv, blank; v, introduction by Aldo Leopold; vi, foreword; 1, general natural history of the Anatidae; 62, other familiar water birds; 65, descriptions and life histories, Sthenelides olor-Dendrocygna bicolor helva; 381, weights and measurements of wildfowl; 389, colour plates and their keys; 463, acknowledgments; 465, bibliography; 474, index including English and generic names. Contains colored half-tone plates 1-36 printed on rectos with facing keys on verso of antecedent plate, uncolored line text figures 1-57 showing anatomical features, an uncolored distribution map for all species, a full-page uncolored text map of North America and numerous unnumbered(usually 2-3 per species) superb line field sketches by Shortt.
This book is a great American ornithological classic that has been through numerous printings and editions including later ones by Frank Bellrose. Kortright, according to his own statement, was a sportsman rather than an ornithologist yet the book is scholarly and scientifically extensive and sound. The work covers 61 species, supplying the derivation of the Latin name; colloquial names; descriptions of all sexes and stages; specimen identification tips; field marks; and rather copious life histories.
The artwork by Terrence Shortt is outstanding, particularly the unnumbered text field sketches where the artist has been permitted to depict the birds in characteristic poses and activities.
This first printing of the work is listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity and Yale.
Kosen (Shoson, Hoson) Ohara (1877-1945)
Collection of prints.
The artist was born Ohara Matao, the family name, always written first in Japanese, being Ohara, the given name Matao. The given names by which he was later known, Koson, Shoson and Hoson, were given him by the publishers of his prints. Each of these names conveys a pleasant connotation and each has a distinctive character which can be easily identified in his signature on a print.
The name Shoson was used only for those of his prints that were published by Watanabe Shozaburo for whom Koson was the most important artist for kachoga (bird and flower genre) starting in 1926. Watanabe was arguably the most important figure in the Shin-hanga (new prints) movement and prints drawn by Shoson fall into that category, Interestingly, they were prepared primarily for export. The Shin-hanga movement emphasized cooperation amongst artist, wood carver, printer and publisher and, in effect, infringed on the creative control of the artist. Properly speaking, those prints of Koson published by Kokkeido and Daikokuya before 1912 do not qualify as Shin-hanga. Many of the blocks for prints published by Watanabe survived the war and were used for later printings. Usually, if oban-sized (ca. 375 x 250mm), such prints issued between 1946 and 1957 (Hasui era) are marked in the image with a six mm circular stamp (copyright seal). Those printed after 1957 ordinarily have a seven mm stamp. The prewar Shoson images usually have stamps in their margins that specify the period of printing. If the date of the original printing is known, then the date specified in the margin can indicate whether the printing may be original or whether it is later, but still prewar. The closer to the date of the original printing, the more desirable the print. Whereas, these considerations apply to oban-sized prints, unfortunately, smaller prints issued by Watanabe and bearing the Shoson signature, for the most part lack any publisher's stamp.
The name Hoson was used only for prints published by Sakai-Kawaguchi, a firm which went out of business in about 1931. A copyright stamp of the firm was stamped in the margins of the Hoson prints and its presence there indicates that the print was issued between 1926 and 1931 and is not a later printing. The blocks for these printings became the property of a successor firm so late printings are possible but will not carry the Kawaguchi copyright stamp.
The artist is alleged not to have designed prints between 1912 and 1926. The main firms for which he designed prints prior to 1912 were Kokkeido, owned by Akiyama Buemon, which went out of business about 1910, and Daikokuya, owned by Matsuki Heikichi, which lasted until 1923. He was known as Koson for both of these firms as well as for that of Nishinomiya Yosaku which may have taken over some of their blocks and which published his prints in the 1930s. Prints issued by Nishinomiya usually carried a stamp of the firm in one of their margins Prints published by Kokkeido are identified by a specific stamp of the firm located in the image. The presence of this logo guarantees that the print was done in or before 1910. Prints by the artist that were published by Daikokuya can be said to have been issued before 1912, however, there is a major problem: Daikokuya did not use any stamp or logo that would identify the firm. Prints published by Daikokuya have been identified by reference to the firm's catalogs and are listed as such in Cranes, Crows, and Camellias. In addition, those prints illustrated in the catalog of the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Museum that were not issued by Kokkeido, almost certainly were published by Daikokuya. However, there are a substantial number of prints with Koson's signature and seal that cannot be attributed to a specific publisher.
Prints by Koson that lack a seal are often Hidachi (postwar) reprints. On the other hand, quite a few prints were originally issued with a seal but no signature, often by Daikokuya.
Several of Koson's prints were directly inspired by, or copied from those of Imao Keinen in his Kacho Gafu (1891-1892)).
Owl and Moon Scops Owl perched in moonlight. Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku Paper size, 367 x 190 mm; image size, 346 x 187 mm. No signature. Seal, Koson (K.c5). Tokyo, Daikokuya, 1912 or before.
There are two states known for this print (i.e. two different key blocks). They differ in the configuration of the branches on the lower right of the image near the stamp. The present version is identical to that pictured in the catalog of the Hiraki Ukyio-e Museum and different from that shown in Cranes, Crows & Camellias. However, the bokashi around the moon in my print is differs slightly from each the other two which differ from each other. So one could say that there is evidence for at least two states (different blocks) and three editions (qualitative printing differences). I have also seen an example of this print, presumably a later issue, with the Nishinomiya imprint.
The original painting for this print was exhibited at the Hiraki Museum.
Cranes, Crows & Camellias (C, C & C), Plate No. 81 and checklist No. k20.6. Hiraki Ukyio-e Museum (HM), No. 67.
Gray Starling balancing on tree branch Thin laid paper. Yoko õ-tanzuku. Paper size, 195 x 366 mm; image size, 182 x 350 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal Koson (K.c2). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 27.3.
Grey Herons wading Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 366 x 190 mm; image size, 349 x 183 mm. Signature, Koson (a); Seal, Koson (Kc2). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C., plate No. 10 and checklist No. K14.23.
Two Gray Herons flying in heavy rain Thin laid paper. Yoko õ-tanzuku. Paper size, 189 x 356 mm; image size, 180 x 346 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.b2). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K14.11. C. C. & C. Mistakenly refer to the birds as "little egrets" and to the format of the print as yoko naga-õban. Watanabe later issued what appears to be a print from the same keyblock which C. C. & C. (checklist No. s14.12) correctly describes as yoko õ-tanzuku.
Two Tree Sparrows on a snow-covered Nandin bush Thin laid paper. Chûban. Paper size, 257 x 180 mm; image size, 247 x 169. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Koson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1930s (?).
C. C. & C., checklist No. S33.2
Cranes on seashore Heavy laid paper. õban. Paper size, 390 x 263 mm; image size, 364 x 241 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (?). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1933 (Watanabe C seal [1929-1942] in lower right margin).
It is possible that this is the first issue since the known date falls within the dates indicated by the publisher's seal. In any event, clearly a prewar printing.
C. C. & C., checklist No. S4.1.
Scops owl flying under cherry blossoms, a full moon behind Thin laid paper. õban. Paper size, 388 x 260 mm; image size, 363 x 239 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S. a). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1926 (Watanabe C seal [1929-1942] in lower right margin).
This is clearly not the original printing since the known year of publication antedates its publisher's seal.. However, the seal does denote an early, prewar printing. This print, while not identical, was clearly inspired by an earlier one in naga-õban format published by Kokkeido (C. C. & C., checklist No. K20.1)
C. C. & C., checklist No. S20.1.
(White-fronted) Geese in flight Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 358 x 188 mm; image size, 358 x 179. Signature, Koson (b). Seal, Koson (K.a). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
An unusual artistic printer's device is that one wing tip extends into the left margin. The snowflakes appear different and can even vanish depending on the angle of viewing. According to C. C. & C. (p. 37) "This print has been produced upside down, perhaps intentionally".
C. C. & C., plate No. 3, checklist No. k11.12.
Skylark in flight above blossoming peach Thin wove paper. õban. Paper size, 393 x 259 mm; image size, 363 x 239 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1931 (Watanabe B seal[1927-1932] in lower right margin).
This is likely the original printing since the known date of that printing falls late into the period spanned by this early Watanabe seal. The use of wove paper is unusual.
C. C. & C., checklist No. S16.1.
Two tits on the branch of a tree; red coloured ivy around tree trunk Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 366 x 189 mm; image size, 340 x 184 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (Kc2). Tokyo, Daikokuya, before 1912.
The left hand trunk does not extend as low relative to the main trunk in this image as it does in those portrayed in C. C. & C. and in the catalog of the Hiraki Museum so it is possible this example is a different state. C. C. & C. describe the seal as "K. a" whereas that shown in the Hiraki Museum catalog is identical to that of this example, clearly a K. c and probably K.c2. The original drawing and painting, as well as the print, were exhibited at the Hiraki Museum.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K29.12. Hiraki Museum Catalog No. 46.
Crows in moonlight Thin laid paper. õban. Paper size, 391 x 262 mm; image size, 365 x 237 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1927 (Watanabe D seal[1931-1941] in lower left margin).
This is clearly not the original printing since the time of that printing antedates the period denoted by the publisher's seal. However, that seal does indicate that this example is an early, prewar printing.
C. C. & C., plate No. 150; checklist No. S5.3.
Mandarin Ducks in snow Thick laid paper. õban. Paper size, 392 x 264 mm; image size, 362 x 240 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1935 (Watanabe C seal[1929-1942] in lower left margin).
This may be an example of the original printing since the date of that printing falls well within the period comprised by the publisher's seal. In any event, that seal indicates that it is an early, prewar printing.
C. C. & C., plate No. 148; checklist No. S7.5
Magpie on a branch Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 356 x 189 mm; image size, 351 x 185 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.a). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C., plate No. 5; checklist No. 15.1
Heron in rain Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 362 x 191 mm; image size, 345 x 188 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.d3). Probably Tokyo, probably Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
This is one of Koson's most beautiful prints. The "white rain" is fugitive because the paint used for it is easily oxidized to black. The K.d3 seal seems rather uncommon.
C. C. & C., plate No. 116; checklist No. 14.3.
Kingfisher on stump Thick laid paper. Shikishiban. Paper size, 290 x 253 mm; image size, 274 x 241 mm. Signature Shoson (b). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1935.
C. C. & C., plate No. 163; checklist No. 15.2.
Watanabe seemed to use a publisher's seal only for prints in the õban format so it is not possible to know with certainty when others like this one were actually issued. However, I think there was probably only a single printing of this image and I am quite certain that there were no postwar editions.
Swallow feeding young at nest Japanese vellum. õban. Paper size 409 x 270 mm; image size, 409 x 258 mm. Signature, Koson (d). Seal, Koson (K.c). Place and publisher unknown.
This beautiful print depicts a swallow with elements of both Pacific and Red-rumped Swallow feeding young in a nest of dried mud. One of the young has strayed out of the nest. The print is on paper quite different from those of my other prints, almost certainly vellum, and there is less "bleed through". I haven't seen this print for sale by any dealer or at any auction save the present example, and the auctioneer had never seen it before. I believe that Koson prints on vellum are of the utmost rarity.
C. C. & C., unlisted; Hiraki Museum catalog, unlisted.
Great tit on flowering branch looking down at a flying insect Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 358 x 190 mm; image size, 351 x 184 mm. Signature, Koson (a); Seal, Koson (K.a). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C. err in calling the bird a great tit. It is a long-tailed tit with a tail the size of that of a penduline tit.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K29.4.
Japanese waxwing on a branch Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 366 x 191 mm; image size, 346 x 184 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.a). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K32.1
Two mallards in flight Thin, laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 368 x 192 mm; image size, 345 x 188 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.d3). Probably Tokyo, probably Daikokuya, probably before 1912.
This print has the same uncommon stamp as Heron in rain and exhibits the same subtle attractiveness of printing as that picture.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K7.8.
Egrets Thin, flexible laid paper. õban. Paper size, 379 x 254 mm; image size, 361 x 239 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.a). Tokyo, Watanabe (A seal, 1924-1930), 1926.
According to C. C. & C., this print was first issued in 1926 in a run of 200 examples. The presence of the A stamp, the earliest of the Watanabe stamps and used during the period 1924-1930, suggests that this example is from the original print run. The print is adapted from an earlier one published by Daikokuya ("Egrets in reeds", C. C. & C., Plate No. 59) with very similar images of the birds but with a different background and very different coloring.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 155, checklist No. S14.4.
Night-Heron on a branch Medium thickness, laid paper. Shikishiban. Paper size, 279 x 264 mm; frame size, 250 x 237; image size, 242 x 230. Signature, Koson (d). Seal, Koson (K.c8). Probably Tokyo, probably Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
This print is unusual in having a printed gray frame that is slightly separated from the image.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. K14.4. Hiraki Museum catalog No. 134.
Goshawk on a snowy branch Thin, laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 351 x 192 mm; image size, 348 x 189 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.c3). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
This print has the following stamped in the lower right hand corner:" Sold by Daikokuya. H. Matsuki / No. 2. Yoshikawa-cho, Tokyo, Japan". Such an indicator stamp with direct identification of Daikokuya must be very rare as most prints are attributed to this publisher by evidence from old catalogs of the firm. This stamp is not present in the example shown in C. C. & C.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 71, checklist No. 13.13.
Wagtail and lotus Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 391 x 175 mm; image size, 380 x 167 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1930s(?).
The prints in õ-tanzuku format published by Watanabe are uncommon and never bear the publisher's stamp that usually appears on the õban prints published by the firm. It seems to me unlikely that there were multiple printings of these scarce õ-tanzuku prints and their blocks almost certainly did not survive, or were not used after World War II. This particular print reminds me very much of the work of Edouard Traviès.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 152, checklist No. S30.1
Great Tit on hibiscus twig Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 389 x 173 mm; image size, 379 x 167 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1930s (?)
Unlisted by C. C. & C. The posture of the bird resembles that of K29.9. I have never seen another copy of this print listed and it is probably rare.
Bullfinch on branch of blossoming plum tree Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 375 x 190 mm; image size, 346 x 187 mm. Signature, Koson (c?). Seal, Koson (K.b1). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K9.5. Hiraki Museum catalog No. 30 in which both an original drawing and an original painting are shown as well as a proof print and the final print.
Goshawk on a pine tree, a rainbow above Thick laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 379 x 192 mm; image size, 345 x 189 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.d1). No indication of publisher, place or date. Almost certainly not Nishinomiya so probably Daikokuya, Tokyo, 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., checklist No. K13.18. The wood grain background of this picture is printed in azuri-e and is exceptionally attractive.
Egret in rain Medium laid paper. õban. Paper size, 390 x 260 mm; image size, 365 x 235 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.a). Tokyo, Watanabe (A seal in right margin, 1924-1930), 1928.
According to C. C. & C., this print was first issued in an edition of 300 in 1928. The presence of the A seal indicates that this example is almost certainly from the original printing. It is said to be among the artist's most desirable prints because of the gauffrage used to indicate individual feathers.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 157, checklist No. S14.3.
Kingfisher with lotus flower Medium laid paper. õban Paper size, 435 x 263 mm; image size, 421 x 260 mm. Signature, Koson (b). Seal, Koson (K.d3). Probably Tokyo, Nishinomiya, early 1930s.
C. C. & C. suggest that this image may derive from Nishinomiya but also make reference to what they consider to be a later and inferior printing which lacks the signature. I have seen an example of that printing and it contains the Nishinomiya stamp ( a four character copyright designation and a four character designation of the firm) in the margin whereas the present print and that described by C. C. & C. apparently do not. C. C. & C. say that Nishinomiya may have acquired some of the blocks from Kokkeido and Daikokuya after those companies went out of business so it is conceivable that this original printing may be from one of those, more likely Daikokuya since they didn't designate their prints with a specific stamp.
The K.d3 stamp on this print is also present on (Night-)Heron in rain and Two mallards in flight, both of which, like this image, seem to me to be exceptionally beautifully printed.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 144, checklist No. 15.1
Heron in flight, reeds below Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 382 x 171 mm; image size, 375 x 165 mm. Signature, Shoson (b). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe,
1930s (?).
C. C. & C., Checklist No. S14.11 where mistakenly titled "Great egret in flight, reeds below. The image of the heron here is virtually identical to that in Plate No. 8, "Heron with moon" a naga-õban print signed by Koson and issued by Kokkeido in 1910 or before.
Heron on snow-covered pole Medium laid paper. õban. Paper size, 401 x 269 mm; image size, 364 x 240 mm. Signature, Hoson (b). Seal, Hoson (H.a). Engraved by Maeda and printed by Komatsu (designation in Japanese characters in lower left margin.) Tokyo, Kawaguchi (copyright seal, lower right margin), probably between 1926 and 1931.
This is my first print with the Hoson imprint. Prints with the Hoson signature seem to be uncommon and there were few of them that depicted birds. This is an exceptionally beautiful print of a Black-crowned Night-Heron, one of the artist's favorite subjects.
This print has "made in japan" stamped in the lower right margin of its verso.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. H14.1.
Two wild ducks (mallards) in flight above reeds, a moon behind Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 378 x 190 mm; image size, 354 x 184 mm. Signature, Koson (e). Seal, Koson (K.c2?). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
This print has "made in Japan" stamped on the lower right margin of its verso.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. K7.10
Gulls at sea Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 378 x 191 mm; image size, 350 x 186 mm. Signature, Koson (d). Seal, Koson (K.b1). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
This print has "made in Japan" stamped on the lower left margin of its verso
C. C. & C., Plate No. 104, checklist No. K12.1. The print exhibits considerable gofun.
Barn swallow in flight above water with large waves Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 369 x 190 mm; image size, 345 x 183 mm. Signature, Koson (b?). Seal, Koson (K.d1). Tokyo, Daikokuya (?), probably 1912 or before. Although it bears the Koson, not Shoson, signature, one dealer found a copy in a Watanabe folder so there is a possibility that Watanabe is the publisher, in which case the print would probably have been issued in the 1930s.
This print has "made in Japan" stamped in the lower right margin of its verso.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. K28.8. The print exhibits considerable gofun.
Myna on branch Medium laid paper. õban. Paper size, 400 x 270 mm; image size, 362 x 239 mm. Signature, Hõson (b). Seal, Hõson (H.a.). Engraved by Maeda, printed by Komatsu (Japanese character designations in lower left margin). Tokyo, published by Kawaguchi (publisher's seal, lower right margin), probably 1926-1931.
This print has "made in Japan" stamped on the lower right margin of its verso.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 172, checklist No. H36.2.
Two white cockatoos on a red bar Medium laid paper. õban. Paper size, 375 x 274 mm; image size, 333 x 240 mm. Signature, Hõson (a). Seal, Hõson (H.a). Engraved by Maeda, printed by Komatsu (Japanese character designations in lower left margin). Tokyo, published by Kawaguchi (publisher's seal, lower right margin), probably 1926-1931.
On the verso, this print has purple rubber stamp "Kawaguchi, Japan" at the lower right and blue rubber stamp "37" bottom center.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. H36.1, this example being the not infrequent variant with the extra red bar.
Blue robin on twig of a maple tree Thin laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 385 x 173 mm; image size, 374 x 165 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson S.b1. Tokyo, Watanabe, 1930s (?).
C. C. & C., Checklist No. S35.1. This work is printed entirely in azure (azuri-e).
White-fronted goose flying over reeds Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 374 x 192 mm; image size, 347 x 178 mm. Signature, Koson (f). Seal, Koson (K.c8). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
Print has made in Japan stamped in lower left corner of verso.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 11.18.
Autumn moon. Two mallards in flight in front of a full moon Medium laid paper. Yoko õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 190 x 367 mm; image size, 181 x 357 mm. Signature, Koson (i). Seal, Koson (K.c2). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
This print is laid down and matted with external mat dimensions of 213 x 377 mm and frame size, 182 x 338 mm. The back of the mat bears the logo of the Shima Art Company, New York and Tokyo and has an affixed tag of the Robert Lee Gallery, Newtown (Connecticut). According to ebay dealer from whom I bought this print, Robert Muller, who eventually bought the Shima Art Gallery, was, at an earlier stage in his career, a sales representative for the Robert Lee Gallery.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 7.1
Kingfisher on a tree trunk Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 356 x 190 mm; image size, 346 x 188 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.c5). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 127, Checklist No.15.3
Starlings on a twig Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 361 x 191 mm; image size, 346 x 188 mm. Signature, Koson (b). Seal, Koson (K.b1). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 124, Checklist No. 27.1
A couple of mandarin ducks near the waterside, flowers and grasses behind Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper and image size 335 x 184 mm. Signature, Koson (d). Seal, Koson (K.c2). Tokyo, Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 7.13.
(Gos)hawk in snow Medium laid paper õban. Paper size, 387 x 258 mm; image size, 362 x 241 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.b1). Tokyo, Watanabe (A seal, 1924-1930), 1926.
According to C. C. & C., this work was first issued in 1926 in a print run of 100. The presence of an A seal, the earliest of the post-earthquake seals, suggests that this example may be from that first run.
C. C. & C., Plate No. 159, Checklist No. S31.3.
Kingfisher at the stem of a water plant Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 365 x 190 mm; image size, 346 x 185 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.d1). Tokyo, probably Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 15.4. Hiraki Museum Catalogue #26 showing original drawing and original painting as well as print.
Two swallows on blossoming weeping cherry Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 363 x 190 mm; image size, 349 x 187 mm. Signature, Koson (d). Seal, Koson (K.c2). Tokyo, probably Daikokuya, probably 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 28.11.
Eagle on tree Medium laid paper õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 363 x 189 mm; image size, 346 x 188 mm. Signature, Koson (b). Seal, Koson (K.c8). Tokyo, Daikuya, 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Plate Number 69. Mistakenly omitted from Checklist.
Copper pheasant in flight above bushes Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 357 x 187 mm; image size, 346 x 180 mm. Signature, Koson (a). Seal, Koson (K.a). Tokyo, Kokkeido (seal), 1910 or before.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 21.13.
Japanese wagtail on a rock surrounded by waves, a waterfall behind Medium laid paper. õ-Tanzuku. Paper size, 358 x 190 mm; image size, 345 x 189 mm. Signature, Koson (b). Seal, Koson (K.d2). Tokyo, Daikokuya, 1912 or before.
C. C. & C., Checklist No. 30.2. Hiraki Museum Catalogue No. 26 showing drawing, painting and print.
Night Heron on the bough of a willow tree in rain Medium laid paper. Shikishiban. Paper size, 284 x 251 mm; image size, 274 x 241 mm. Signature, Shoson (b). Seal, Shoson (S. c). Tokyo, Watanabe, 1935.
C. C. & C.; Checklist No. S14.1.
A pair of Macaws Light, flexible laid paper. Paper size 390 x 265 mm; image size, 360 x 240 mm. Signature, Shoson (a). Seal, Shoson (S.c). Tokyo, Watanabe (Watanabe A seal [1924-1930] in lower right margin.)
Kovacs, Carlos Julio, Kovacs, Ors, Kovacs, Zsolt, and Kovacs, Carlos Mariano (translated by Mariliana Padilla)
Illustrated / handbook of the / birds of Patagonia / Argentine Antarctica and islands / of the southern Atlantic 31.2 x 22.9 cm. Pp. [1-11]12-364[365-368. Original publisher’s green cloth impressed printing on upper cover and spine. Color pictorial dust jacket depicting Long-tailed Meadowlarks. El Bolson, Rio Negro, Argentina, Museo Ornitologico Patagonico, 2005. Printed by Ronor, Buenos Aires, April, 2006
1, Endsheet, blank,3, apple green; 2, blank, white; 3, half-title with library blind stamp of David F. Orndorff; 4, frontispiece, Magellanic Woodpecker; 5, title printed green; 6, copyright; ISBN 987-22484-1-9; printed by Ronor; 7, acknowledgements; 11, contents; 15, preface; 17, map of Argentina; 19, introduction; 23, more acknowledgements; 25, classification, nomenclature; 26, anatomy of birds; relevant features for identification; 33, regions and natural habitats; 39, families and species (343 species) ; 349, bibliography (about 70 references); 352, index to common (English) names and plates; 356, index to scientific names; 361, taxonomic checklist; 366, limitation statement: 5,000 copies; 3,000 in English of which 500 in hard cover (as this one), 125 numbered, signed and with extra plate. Contains frontispiece, plate of Peregrine Falcon and plates 1-60 printed in color half-tone after Carlos Kovacs with continuous printed text on obverses, all included in pagination. Also contains small distribution map for each species.
This is a highly attractive volume on a very interesting avifauna. It contains useful introductions to each family and very detailed descriptions of each species including length measurements, habitat, status, distribution and nesting information. Every species is illustrated in color and the figures and color printing are very good.
This excellent work is not well known. OCLC locates only nine copies.
Birds of Kashmir 17.8 x 12.3 cm. Pp. [i-v]vi-xvi[1]2-103(1); 60 ll. Contemporary (? original publisher's) red cloth-backed white boards with black lettering on upper cover. Srinagar, the Normal Press, 1939.
i, Half-title: the birds of Kashmir ("the" is lacking in title on cover and title page); ii, blank; iii, title; iv, printer's designation: nirenjan nath dhar; v, preface; ix, foreword by Cecil E. Tyndale-Biscoe; x, contents; xvi, list of illustrations; 1, systematic text; 97, morning and evening song of birds; 98, index. Contains five unnumbered plates (two colored) not included in pagination and five unnumbered, uncolored text illustrations.
This interesting book of the late Raj seems to have been associated with various activities, faculty members and friends of the "C. M. S. High School" where the author was first a student and then a faculty member. The author apparently enjoyed bird walks in which he participated as a student, and later a leader. Everything about the book was done locally including the illustrations. Those that are full-page depict the species with its nest and eggs whereas the text figures are of birds alone.
The work covers about 72 species. It gives names in English, Latin and Kashmiri, provides a rather scanty description and summarizes the status of the species in Kashmir. Nests and eggs are described if the bird is a breeder and there is considerable anecdotal material. The information is accurate and well observed, however, the presentation is that of an amateur.
This is one of few ornithological books written by an Indian national during the Raj and before Salim Ali's Book of Indian Birds first (1941) appeared. This original edition is evidently uncommon as the only place I could locate it amongst my usual sources was the on-line catalog of the American Museum of Natural History. Later editions appeared in 1956 and 1968, the latter published in Mysore.
AMNH; Cornell (1968, edition); Harvard (1968 edition); Trinity, p. 140(1968 edition); Yale (1968 edition). OCLC locates 25 copies, mostly of the later printings.
Krider, John (1813-1886)
Ornithological / and / oological list / of / North America 14.4 x 11.2 cm. Pp. [1-2]3-20. Original printed wrappers corresponding to pp. 1-2, 20, the upper wrapper framed around title page. Philadelphia, W. W. Mayberry, Printer, ND (probably 1878 or before).
1, Title; 2, printer designation; 3, list of bird names in Latin and English: Cathartes aura-Mergulus alle, comprising species and subspecies 1-738; 20, errata; 20, woodcut logo “John Krider / Gun Makers Dealers in / Fishing Tackle / northeast corner of Second and Walnut Sts / Philadelphia
This attractive period piece contains an almost complete list of North American birds with no text at all, so it is not clear whether Krider, who is listed on the title page as John Krider / Taxidermist, had for sale, some or all of these as stuffed specimens or was purveying their eggs.
Krider was a well known gunsmith and fishing tackle maker who also had a lifetime interest in ornithology and wrote Forty years notes of a field ornithologist (Philadelphia, 1879). His shop on Walnut street changed hands in 1878 so this work was probably printed before that date and certainly before the publication of the first AOU list (1886). It may have been adapted from Coues’s Check-List (1874).
The present printed list is very rare. OCLC locates only three copies.
Conspectus Psittacorum Cum specierum definitionibus, novarum descriptionibus, synonymis et circa patriam singularum naturalem adversariis, adjecto indice museorum, ubi earum artificiosae exuviae servantur 26.5 x 22 cm. A-N4 [$1 signed]; 52 ll. Pp. [1-3]4-104. 20th century full vellum with gilt lettering on spine and upper cover. (Bonn, 1820)
(1), title; 3-104, text. Contains three, (I-III), hand-colored plates engraved by C. Müller after drawings by Huard (1) and A. Prévost. Private library stamp partially removed from front endpaper.
This work, written in Latin, is an extremely rare and important monograph on parrots which, according to Zimmer, contains “...descriptions of many new species”. Synonymy, description, area of origin and location of specimens in museums are presented for 209 species, many more than had been treated by Levaillant. According to Whittell, this work was published in a scientific journal, Nova Acta Phys. Acad. Leop. Carol., 10, 1: 1-104 and was also issued as a separate. I have taken the “Bonn, 1820” from Zimmer. There is no date or place given on the title page of my copy which, however, seems to be a bona fide title leaf since its verso is blank.
Kuhl was a German protégé of Conrad Temminck who, like several other gifted young disciples of that ornithologist, died while collecting in the Dutch East Indies for the Rijksmuseum.
I think the three plates in this book are very well drawn and superbly engraved, printed and colored. In this regard, I find myself in rare disagreement with Ronsil, who remarks (p. 57) in his L’Art Français dans le Livre d’Oiseau, “...elles sont loin d’ être bonnes”.
Whittell, p. 404; Zimmer, p. 363. Absent from McGill, Trinity and Yale catalogues.
Kuhnert (Friedrich)Wilhelm(Karl)(1865-1926) (text by Lydekker, R.(ichard, [1849-1915])
Animal portraiture / being / fifty studies / by Wilhelm Kuhnert / accompanied by a series of / original articles / by / R. Lydekker / F. R. S. 36.5 x 28.6 cm. π5C-S2/4T4[$1 signed]; 57 ll. Pp. [i-iv]v-viii1-104[105](1). Publisher's brown cloth with black-ruled double panel on upper cover, the central panel tan with block tan and black lion design, gilt block lettering. Spine with gilt lettering and antelope head. Patterned tan endpapers. TEG. London, New York, Frederick Warne & Co., (1912). First printing.
i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title printed in red, lion vignette; iv, blank; v, foreword; vii, contents; 1, text and plates; 103, index; 105, printer designation: Morrison & Gibb, Edinburgh. Contains plates I-L, so numbered only in contents, printed in color half-tone , overlaid with thin unprinted tissue guard, and accompanied by descriptive text. The plates (ca. 21 x 14 cm) are mounted in sunken panels (ca. 24 x 16 cm). They contain Kuhnert's signature and some are designated "G. Bx & Cp".
This work is a collaboration between a student of natural history, particularly mammals, and a very serious animal artist, perhaps less known now than he should be because he did not illustrate any standard books for others. The text is written at a popular level and is entertaining because of Lydekker's storehouse of unusual information. Lydekker was the author of The Royal Natural History (1893-1896) as well as several monographs on mammals. The plates are extremely good. Of them, 31 depict mammals, 18 birds, and there is one of a crocodile.
Nowhere in this book is mention made that all 50 of these plates, reproduced from oil paintings by G. Bx & Cp, and an additional 70, appeared originally in Das Thierleben der Erde by J. W. Haake and Kuhnert published by Oldenbourg in Berlin, 1901. The pictures in that work were framed by a fine line. For the present work, that line was trimmed away and the slightly smaller image was mounted into the panels.
There was a later issue of the present book in which the title is printed in black and the foreword is lacking.
Wood, p. 444. Also listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Yale. Not listed by Trinity.
Kumlien, L(udwig)(1853-1902), Hollister, N(ed)
The Birds of Wisconsin 22.1 x 14.9 cm. Pp. (2, initial blank leaf)[i]ii-iv[1]2-143(1); 75 ll including initial blank. Near contemporary half-red morocco and red cloth. Patterned endpapers, speckled edges. Original upper wrapper bound in at rear. Milwaukee, Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society, Vol. 3, Nos. 1-3, January, April, July 1903.
i, Title; ii, Wisconsin Natural History Society information; iii, price list for Society's publications; iv, publisher's note and errata; 1, prefatory note; 5, systematic list; 129, hypothetical list; 135, index of English names; 139, index of Latin names. Contains eight uncolored, unnumbered photographic plates including frontispiece not included in pagination. The initial blank contains ink signatures of Mabel Hollister and Margaret Hollister Lowe, presumably the junior author's wife and daughter.
Although, in principle, this authoritatively presented work covered three issues of the Society's journal, in reality it was apparently published as a single unit as indicated by the included single upper wrapper which includes all three monthly designations. The work covers the distribution, status and abundance of the 357 species whose occurrence in the state is considered beyond reasonable doubt by the authors. Most of the information comes from the personal observations of the authors and those of Kumlien's father (?), Thure, but they also cite some antecedent lists. The first of these by P. R. Hoy was "corrected and reprinted from the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in the Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Volume II, 1852, pp. 341-364".
Trinity, p. 141; Wood, p. 423; Yale, p. 314 (Wisconsin Natural History Society); Zimmer, p. 363.
Dr. Kuroda’s Birds in Life Colours 31 x 23 cm. Three volumes. Publisher’s sheep-backed, gilt-stamped boards with blind-stamped eagle on upper cover. Original cardboard slipcases. (Tokyo, Shukyosha Shoin, 1933-1934).
Volume 1. Two preliminary leaves first of which is title, pp. (1)2-8(9-10); ff. 1-43; pp. (1)2-8; (1)2-8; (1)2-8 (indexes in Japanese, Latin and English); colophon. Contains 43 colored plates.
Volume 2. Two preliminary leaves, pp. (1)2-11(12); ff. 44-100; pp. (1)2-26 (indexes in Japanese, Latin and English); colophon. Contains colored plates 44-100.
Volume 3. Two preliminary leaves, pp. (1)2-11(12); ff. 101-155; pp. (1)2-26; colophon. Contains colored plates 101-155.
This is the first edition of a popular and attractive work with 155 colored plates that show 1092 species and subspecies from all over the world. Most of it is in Japanese characters but the title is printed in English and the names of the birds are given in English and Latin as well as in Japanese. The general format is that an adjacent leaf of letter press describes some characteristics of each of the illustrated birds. One side of the leaf is usually blank except when it presents the properties of a new family. There is a small amount of general introductory ornithological material but the work is mainly illustrative. This first edition lacks an Arabic numeral designation of the year of publication. The Maggs Bros. catalogue gave the years as 1933-1934 whereas the Yale and Trinity catalogues give 1935. I’m quite certain that the second edition had an Arabic “1936” in its first volume.
Trinity, p. 141; Yale, p. 62.
A Monograph of the Charadriidae 26.3 x 19.5 cm. Title leaf, 19 introductory leaves, 237 leaves of species descriptions and tabular summaries, three leaves of index and a colophon leaf, i. e. total of 261 leaves not including 10 plates (five colored) and their accompanying flimseys with letter press. The leaves are bound right to left save for the index which is bound left-to-right and numbered [i]ii-vi, the only leaves containing roman numeral pagination. There is no arabic numeral pagination although arabic numbers are used to designate species. Original publisher’s decorated blue cloth with English title, year 1918 in arabic numerals and fine chrome and black and white illustration of a plover on upper (right cover) and gilt Japanese lettering on spine. Tokyo, 1918. Contains numerous text illustrations, mostly photographs of illustrations in various western works.
I believe that this extremely rare work is one of the most exhaustive monographs of a taxonomic group ever done in Japan. Fairly extensive accounts appear to be given for 237 numbered species as well as the unnumbered oriental pratincole and Luzonian (pheasant-tailed) jacana. Kuroda was a major figure in the early phase of “modern” ornithology in Japan. This book, like most of his, may well have been published by the Ornithological Society of Japan since its layout appears similar to his previous monograph on Geese and Swans of the World published by them and described by Zimmer (p. 364). Both works are almost entirely in Japanese save for the species names which are given in Latin and English as well, and the eccentric bibliography which, for this book, refers mostly to works written in English and includes items such as Frank Chapman’s Camps and Cruises.. while lacking Seebohm’s monograph on the same group which it, itself, covers. The text illustrations are culled from sources as disparate as Dresser’s Birds of Europe and the Audubon Society leaflets. The quality of their reproduction, as well as that of the paper used in the book, is very poor. There is a scenic colored frontispiece and nine additional plates (four colored) each containing portraits of several species. I believe these are by K. Yokoyama (they are signed with a monogram containing a K and different from that of Kobayashi in Birds of Java)and they are nicely done.
Trinity, p. 141. Unlisted in Ayer, Trinity and Yale catalogues. Listed by UC-Berkeley under the title "Shigi-chidorirui zusetsu" with coauthors Iijima, Imao and Uchida, Seinosuke. OCLC locates seven copies.
Kuroda, N. (1889-1978), Matsudaira, Y., Taka-Tsukasa, N., Uchida, S.
A Hand-List of the / Japanese Birds 22.5 x 15.2 Printed in western style i. e. left-to-right with printing along the short axis of the page. Pp. (2, introduction, previous literature)1-184 (list)1-18 (index)1-4 (corrigenda, addenda). Original gray wrappers printed on upper cover. The Ornithological Society of Japan, Tokyo, 1922.
Save for the initial leaf of preliminaries, this work is written almost entirely in English. The names of the 788 forms are given in Latin, English and Japanese, the latter in English characters. Also given for each form, are the original citation and the distribution within the area covered which includes Korea and Formosa but not Manchuria. This hand-list is quite comparable to the first AOU checklist of 1885 in that it is the first such list to be published in Japan under the auspices of an ornithological society. The first list of Japanese birds was compiled by Isao Ijima and published in Japanese in 1891. Ijima became the first president of the Ornithological Society of Japan when it was founded in 1911. The first list written in English and published in Japan was by Minori Ogawa in 1908. The present work, according to Taka-Tsukasa (p. XXXIX) in his The Birds of Nippon (1932-1943) was compiled in 1910 and 1911 but was published in 1922 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Society. The journal of the Society was started in 1915 and was called Tori. All the early publications of Tori are uncommon since it was printed in small quantity on paper of low quality. Most, like this one, are of considerable scholarly significance. It is not clear to me whether this work should be regarded as an offprint, an entire issue of Tori, or a separate publidation under the auspices of the Ornithological Society of Japan.
Trinity, p. 141. Absent from Ayer, McGill and Yale catalogs.
Birds / of the / Island of Java Two volumes 37.2 x 25.5 cm. Later maroon cloth with original maroon cloth spines laid down. Spine with five simulated raised ridges and gilt lettering in second, third and fourth compartments. Tokyo, published privately by the author, 1933-1936.
Vol. I. Passeres 1933. No signatures. Pp. [I-V]VI-XV(1)[1]2-370(2, Japanese publication stamp). I, Title page with title printed in red; II, blank; III, contents; IV, blank; V, preface; X, blank; XI, introduction; 1, History of Javan ornithology; 27, systematic text, corvids-broadbills; 343, corrigenda and addenda; 349, index to scientific and local names. Contains colored frontispiece, plate I, with protective, unprinted tissue guard, by the author's son, Nagahisa Kuroda, and, between pp. 342 and 343, colored plates II-XIV after S. Kobayashi, each accompanied by a facing sheet of thin paper with descriptive letter-press. The plates are printed on one side only and neither the plates nor the leaves of letter-press are included in pagination. A folded, uncolored "Sketch-Map of the Malay Archipelago" is bound following the plates.
Vol. II. Non-Passeres 1936. Pp. [I-V]VI[371]372-794(2, Japanese publication stamp). I, Title printed in red; II, blank; III, contents; IV, blank; V, preface to volume II.371-695, systematic text, swifts-pheasants; 696, summary and conclusions; 702, tabular distribution of species in different parts of Java and amongst the Greater and Lesser Sundas, Celebes and the Malay peninsula; 721, lists of birds for specific Lesser Sunda islands; 740, bibliography; 755, corrigenda and addenda; 763, index to volume II. Contains colored frontispiece, plate XV, by the author's son, N. H. Kuroda, and, between pp. 754 and 755, plates XVI-XXXIV by Kobayashi with their respective leaves of descriptive letter-press as well as a folding "Sketch-Map of Java".
Kuroda visited Java in 1929 and secured a personal collection of specimens which he augmented through purchases. He felt that the Javanese avifauna was particularly significant because he regarded Java and the Riu Kiu Islands as the southern and northern limits of the Oriental region, his area of special ornithological interest. This work is one of considerable scholarship with frequent quotations from the original German, and in some cases, Dutch. There is an outstanding bibliography. The history of Javanese ornithology is quite a rich one since it was long a part of the "Dutch East Indies" and, as such, attracted the eye of Dutch and German ornithologists. In this work, Kuroda provides careful generic and specific keys as well as systematic accounts for around 500 species. In each species account, he includes an original reference; a description; measurements; distribution; status; a section on field notes that includes as much on life history as possible, often presented through explicit quotation from an antecedent work in its original language; and a section on "allied forms" which can include subspecies, in some cases recognizable, in other cases, apparently not. Although numerous articles had been published about Javanese ornithology, this was the first book since Zoological Researches in Java and the neighboring Islands by Thomas Horsfield(1824) to deal with the subject and was the most comprehensive work up to the time of its publication. Kuroda was especially meticulous about citations and this work is certainly the ultimate reference book for the birds of Java. The extent of this meticulousness can be gleaned from the fact that for every bird figured in the plates, Kuroda provides the sex, the date and location that it was taken, and the name of the collector who allowed him and Kobayashi to use it as a model.
It is frequently said that only 200 copies of the complete work were printed. I suspect the figure may actually be higher.
Present at AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.
Ducks / of / The World 25.7 x 18.2 cm. Pp. ( Three preliminary leaves comprising title page in English, foreword[?], and contents)[1]2-64(30, comprising 15 blank leaves)(4, “index to the generic names… “[so entitled English] comprising generic names given in Latin and in Japanese transliterated into western letters. Original brown decorated and printed wrappers, the upper cover designated as follows: Ducks of / The World / Nagamichi Kuroda / The Ornithological Society / Of Japan / 1912. (Tokyo), 1912.
Contains a single colored plate specifically painted for this work with overlying tissue sheet of letter-press and six unnumbered photographic plates of illustrations from various antecedent sources, on one of which I can identify the signature of Otto Kleinschmidt. All of the illustrations are not included in the pagination.
This is a significant and rare work. Kuroda was only 23 when it was published and I believe it was the first substantial publication of the Ornithological Society of Japan, which was founded in 1911. I think it is also the first monograph by a Japanese ornithologist and perhaps the best up to its time that was specifically devoted to ducks which had received little coverage. In fact, Eyton’s Monograph on the Anatidae, or Duck Tribe (London, 1838) is the only comparably specific book that comes to mind. The rarity of the present publication is attested by its absence from all major libraries save that of Harvard University and from all bibliographies save that of John Phillip’s A Natural History of Ducks (vol. IV, p. 381, 1926). I have never seen a copy advertised in any catalogue. According to the dealer, this one was part of the Bradley Martin collection.
The work covers 136 numbered species that are identified by Japanese, Latin, and often, English names.
There are a number of interesting aspects concerning this publication. It follows western ways and differs from later monographic publications of the Ornithological Society in being bound left-to-right and in having the long axis of the printed page vertical. It has 15 blank leaves bound as an integral part of the publication. Most of the text is in Japanese characters but the numbering is Arabic, and English is sprinkled about in unexpected ways. The upper wrapper is highly unusual. The paper is brown and the title is impressed upon it in blue as though stamped into it with a blue-coated wood block. Part of the design, ripples in water, is similarly stamped whereas the rest of the design ( a duck flying over the water and in front of the distant horizon) is printed in black (perhaps by ordinary woodblock) as are the author’s and Society’s names and the date.
Unlisted in Trinity, Wood, Yale, Zimmer. OCLC locates four copies.
A Monograph / on the / Pheasants of Japan / Including / Korea and Formosa 38.0 x 26.0 cm. Pp. (6, including three preliminary leaves, printed on recto only, comprising title leaf, contents leaf and introduction leaf), [1]2-43; 25 ll. Contemporary worn half-red buckram and boards, gilt lettering on spine. TEG. Tokyo, by the author, 1926.
1, text; 36, literature comprising 72 references; 41, index. Contains colored plates I-XII after K. Yokoyama and S. Kobayashi, photographic uncolored plates XIII-XV, all with apposite tissue leaves containing letter-press and all printed on one side only and not included in pagination.
Kuroda was the most prolific of 20th century Japanese ornithologists, had a large collection of skins, and was also an aviculturalist who maintained live birds including pheasants. In this extraordinary, and exceedingly uncommon work, he deals with 12 "forms" which includes full and subspecies. Interestingly, he omits "Swinhoe's Kaleege Pheasant" because "it is not a pheasant in the strictest sense". The treatment of each form is exhaustive. It includes the original citation of the local bird; a careful general description followed by descriptions of all the extant specimens, living or dead, of which he is aware; individual variations with particular emphasis on hybrids; habitat; development including eggs and maturation; habitat; predators; nourishment and economic considerations; and general distribution.
Trinity, p. 141; Wood, p. 423; Yale, p. 162.
Parrots / of / the / World / in / Life / Colours 29.7 x 21.3 cm. Pp. (2, title leaf)1-282 (283, data on author and publication). Beige cloth, printed spine, pictorial dust jacket. ( Tokyo, 1975).
1, preliminaries; 9, lead on leaf for plates; 11, plates; 77, lead on leaf for text; 79, text; 257, list of live parrots introduced into Japan; 261, literature after 1967; 265, Japanese index; 272, Latin index; 278, English index. Contains colored plates 1-65 after Fumito Yamashita included in pagination.
Kuroda was the first Japanese ornithologist to achieve international stature. His initial paper appeared in 1908 so he continued to publish for at least 67 years! Parrots were one of his many interests and he published a sparsely illustrated but comprehensive monograph on them in 1967. The present work is just the opposite, a profusely illustrated work with a rather minimal text that provides brief distributional and descriptive notes. 326 Species and almost as many subspecies are described and pictured. The text is presented in parallel columns written in Japanese and English and the names of the species and subspecies are also given in Latin.
The illustrator has clearly been much influenced by 19th century works. I recognize pictures that originally appeared in Lear’s Parrots, Guillemard’s Cruise of the Marchesa and Mivart’s Lories to mention a few.
The text is rather sparse. For example, it fails to mention that the Paradise Parrot is probably extinct.
Kuroda’s works all seem to be rather scarce and this one seems to be no exception.
Trinity, p. 141.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)
Notes on Formosan birds with the description / of a new bullfinch 25.1 x 17.5 cm. Pp. [255]256-297(1). Original publisher’s printed tan wrappers with “with the compliments of N. Kuroda” stamped on upper cover. Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses Vol. IX, pt. 3, (Tokyo), 1917.
This is an author’s offprint that lists 120 species including many represented by subspecific forms, most of which were collected by Kuroda the previous year, but some of which he identified in local museums. According to Kuroda, 30 of these forms had not previously been noted for the island by Uchida who had compiled a list of 290 species and subspecies published in this journal in 1912 and added 11 more in his Birds of Japan (1915).
Kuroda also describes a Bullfinch which he considers to be a new species, designated by him Pyrrhula uchidai. This is no longer considered to be a full species and is probably a form of Pyrrhula nipalensis, the Brown Bullfinch.
OCLC locates only one example of the article but certainly there are other examples that are included in complete volumes of the Annotationes
(On a collection of birds from Hainan) In Japanese. 25.7 x 18.8 cm. Pp. 389-393(1, blank). Reprinted from Dobutsugaku Zasshi(Zoological Magazine), Tokyo, 1921.
This is an author’s reprint of an article that describes a collection of 46 species made in Hainan, November, 1919 through January, 1920. The work is entirely in Japanese save for the Latin names of the birds and the names of the authors who first described the species. For each species, the author supplies the sex and the date collected. There is considerable commentary for several species.
Dobutsugaku Zasshi, The Zoological Magazine, was published in Tokyo, 1889-at least 1983.
The work is very rare. OCLC locates but one copy, that in the Ernst Mayr library.
On a third specimen of rare Pseudotadorna cristata Kuroda 22.3 x 15.2 cm. Offprint printed in Japanese followed by an English translation. Upper wrapper printed in Japanese and stamped “With the compliments of N. Kuroda”. Bound in Japanese style, i. e. right-to-left and printed in vertical columns.(Tokyo) “Reprinted from ‘Tori’, vol.iv, no. 18, October, 1924” written in ink manuscript on upper cover. The first five leaves are printed in Japanese and include uncolored half-tone photographic figures 17-20 and a head-piece that depicts Pterodactyl-like creatures. The final two leaves are printed in English and entitled ” On a third specimen of rare Pseudotadorna cristata Kuroda” The work includes a fine color half-tone plate III of an adult male of the species. The plate is not included in the Japanese pagination,
This is an exceedingly important little publication that describes, in great detail, a male Crested Shelduck that Kuroda acquired in 1924. It had apparently been collected, along with a female, in west Korea in 1913 or 1914. Kuroda’s original (1917) description of the species was based on a specimen thought initially to be a male, but eventually determined to be a female.
OCLC locates a single copy, that in the Ernst Mayr library at Harvard.
(Cranes of the world) In Japanese. 22.7 x 15.0 cm. Pp. (1)20-27(1). Japanese printed wrapper stamped “With the compliments of N. Kuroda”. Mounted label with English title, reference. Decorative line headpiece. Tokyo, Tori, V, no. 21, 1926.
This offprint has been bound to be read in the oblong format, although in the western (left to right) orientation.
The article is entirely in Japanese, save for a few references to publications written in English. It appears to be a short monograph on cranes.
I can find no reference to the work, OCLC does not locate a copy. However, it has been digitized and is available in Japanese characters on line.
Sen-man Chôrui Ippan (The Birds of Korea and Manchuria) 25.7 x 18.8 cm. Original gray wrappers with upper printed cover on right. Tokyo, Ornithological Society of Japan, 1917. Original gray wrappers with upper printed cover on right. Tokyo, Ornithological Society of Japan, 1917. Inscribed by the author on upper cover. In addition to colored frontispiece, contains several text photographs of stuffed birds.
The first part of this work, the part on birds of Korea, is paginated right-to-left and is printed along the long axis of the page as follows: Pp. 1-2 (contents), 1-95[96]. It contains a colored frontispiece (not included in pagination) of the Korean Crested Shelduck by Kobayashi.
The second part of the work, which deals with the birds of Manchuria, is paginated left-to-right and printed along the short axis of the page (i. e. western style) as follows: (2, contents), 1-182. Names of birds given in Japanese and Latin. Page numbers in Arabic.
I believe that this little known and uncommon publication of the Ornithological Society of Japan constitutes the first extensive treatment of the avifaunas of Korea and Manchuria. The work is best known by students of waterfowl because in it, the Korean Crested Shelduck is recognized as a full, authentic species for the first time, and is well illustrated. The Ornithological Society published material of excellent scholarship but its journal was poorly printed in small quantity. The Society was founded in 1911 and early issues of its publication, Tori, which was started in 1915, must be rare since there were few copies to begin with and since many of these probably failed to survive due to acidic disintegration. It is not clear to me whether the present work should be considered an offprint, an entire issue of Tori, or a separate publication under the auspices of The Ornithological Society of Japan.
Wood, p. 423. Absent from Ayer, Trinity and Yale catalogs. Present in UC-Berkeley Library.
Kuroda, Nagamichi, (1889-1978)
Geese and ducks / of the world 30.3 x 22.6 cm. Text in Japanese save for title in English and bird names in Latin and English. 139 leaves bound in western style (left-to-right) as follows: seven preliminary unpaginated leaves (PL); foliata enumerated 1-121 on versos; pp. [1]2-19[20-22]. Publisher's tan calf-backed blue cloth with English title, year in gilt and block design of flying waterfowl on upper cover, black calf labeling piece with gilt Japanese characters on spine. Renewed tan endpapers. Upper edge dyed red. [Tokyo, Shukyosha Shohin: Hatsubaijo Kogakkan], 1939.
PL1r, title in English, Japanese; 1v, blank; PL2r-v, foreword; PL3r, enumerated list of seven (?); PL3v, blank; PL4r-7v, contents arranged systematically and enumerated 1-232, Cygnus-cygnus-Mergus ococetaceus and referred to sequential foliata; foliata 1-121, text covering 232 species and subspecies, each folio followed by plate depicting species dealt with on the facing folio; pp. 1-20, domestic waterfowl; 22, publication data and stamp. Contains uncolored half-tone plates 1-121, with blank tissue guard, all not included in pagination. Each plate with several images, many reproduced from antecedent book illustrations.
This is a comprehensive monograph on the Anatidae, the group upon which Kuroda first published in 1912. There are many citations but no list of references, perhaps because the reader is referred to Phillips comprehensive bibliography of the family. Kuroda was later (1942) to publish a post-Phillips bibliography dealing with publications between 1926 and 1940.
This is an uncommon book which is listed by Harvard, Trinity and Yale but not by AMNH or Cornell.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)
(A history of the ornithology of Japan) 22.2 x 15.0 cm. Printed in Japanese but bound and paginated in western style. Pp. (2, offprint title page and blank verso) 1-38 (Japanese numerals). Original printed wrappers on same type paper as text, Offprint from (Natural Science[translation]), Vol. II, No. 2, pp.20-57, Oct. 5, 1927. Title page stamped “With the compliments of Nagamichi Kuroda.
This is an, offprint, apparently with own pagination (Japanese) and title leaf. It is entirely in Japanese. The subject matter is of much interest and I would love to see a translation of this article. As a kind of “father of Japanese ornithology”, Kuroda probably knew as much as anybody about its history. The only coverage of the subject that I’ve seen is inTaka-Tsukasa’s “Birds of Nippon “ (1932-1943).
I could find no references to this article in OCLC. I don’t know where the Japanese journal “Natural Science” (translation) was published.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)
The protection of birds / in Japan 22.0 x 15.1 cm. Pp. 3PL[1]2-19(1). Corrigenda leaf mounted on verso of title leaf. Original printed gray wrappers bound in stilted patterned library cardboard with buckram-tape spine. Calligraphic title on upper board. Tokyo, by the author, 1928.
PL1r, title; PL1v, blank; PL2r, preface dated March, 1928; PL2v, blank; PL3r, contents; PL3v, blank; 1, protection of birds by preserving sites; 7, protection of birds by game laws; 9, protection of birds in Sakhalin, Korea and Formosa; 11, sanctuaries for birds of Japan proper; 13, sanctuaries for ducks; 13, protection of birds by nest boxes; 14, birds which should be protected…; 16, summary and conclusions; 18, references (12). Contains plates I-X with 21 uncolored half-tone photographic figures printed on recto only and not included in pagination.
This is a rare treatise written in English and published privately by Kuroda.
OCLC locates four copies.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)
A revision of the types of birds described by Japanese / authors during the years 1923 to 1931 28.2 x 19.5 cm. Pp. (1, offprint title page)384-405(1). Original printed gray wrappers stamped “With the compliments of Nagamichi Kuroda”. Novitates Zoologicae, Vol. XXXVII, June, 1932. (NP[?Tring]).
This article contains a list of 123 “forms” which were described from 1923-1931 and considered “new” by a committee of Japanese ornithologists in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Ornithological Society of Japan. They are all subspecies with trinomial designations. A reference to the publication in which they were originally designated is supplied for each. According to Kuroda, most of these forms are represented only in Japanese collections.
Novitates, founded by Walter Rothschild at Tring and with Ernst Hartert as a Curator, was a prestigious journal in which to publish.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)
On the migration of certain birds in / Tokyo and the vicinity (II). 22.3 x 14.8 Pp. [112]113-168. Author’s offprint with original printed wrappers on same paper as article. Tokyo, reprinted from “Tori”, Vol. VII, No. 32, December, 1931. Upper wrapper stamped “with the compliments of Nagamichi Kuroda”.
112, IV. the limi coline birds; 133, V., some rails, doves and owls; 138, VI., some passerine birds; 166, VII., literature cited (18 references).
This article is the second in a series although the first in the series is not listed in the bibliography. The work covers 31 shorebirds, five rails, two doves, three owls and 46 passerine species that the author himself collected or observed in Tokyo. Migrations dates and abundance data are given for these and antecedent records by other authors are cited as well.
The first in the series is also in my collection under Kuroda’s Tori offprints. It was published in May, 1931, pp.15-41, and covered Anserine and Ardeine birds comprising 37 species.
Kuroda was a prolific author of ornithological works, many like this one written in English. He is probably best known for his Birds of the island of Java (1933-1936) and A contribution to the knowledge of the avifauna of the Riu Kiu Islands and the vicinity (Tokyo, 1925). He published many articles in Tori, the most important Japanese journal of ornithology.
The present author’s offprint is certainly rare. No copies are located by OCLC.
Kuroda, Nagamichi (1889-1978)
A collection of offprints from Tori (the Japanese journal of ornithology). 22.6 x 15.3 cm with some variation. All with original printed wrappers; three stamped “with the compliments of Nagamichi Kuroda”. Six in English bound and paginated left-to-right, four in Japanese right-to-left. All with original pagination. Tokyo, 1926-1931.
Volume V, No. 21, 1926. Pp. 11-15. In Japanese. On two stragglers, Aegypius monachus and Sula leucogaster plotus from Japan proper. One text uncolored half-tone.
Vol. V, No. 23, June 10, 1927. Pp. 1-14. In English. A list of the birds of / Tokyo city
Vol. V, No. 25, March 31, 1928. Pp. 25-28. In English. Some new additions to the avifauna of Formosa / and the island of Botel Tobago
Vol. VI, No. 26, December, 1928. Pp. 1-10. In Japanese. Review of some Japanese and Formosan birds One text line drawing.
Vol. VI, No. 27, April, 1929. Pp. 117-124. In Japanese. Some rare Anatidae obtained / during this shooting season / 1928-1929, in Japan. Two half-tones.
Vol. VI, No. 29, April, 1930. Pp. 269-274. In Japanese. On a new form of Pycnonotus / sinensis from Ishigaki Island.
Vol. VI, No. 30, November, 1930. Pp. 135-148. In English. A small collection of birds from / south Manchuria.
Vol. VII, No. 31, May, 1931. Pp. 15-41. In English. On the migration of certain birds in / Tokyo and the Vicinity (I) (part II of this article is listed separately under Kuroda and appeared in Tori, December 1931.)
Vol. VII, No. 31, May, 1931. Pp. 41-41. In English. A new supspecies of Bubo Blakistoni / from Sakhalin
Vol. VII, No. 31, May, 1931. Pp. 42-46. In English. The second lot of bird-skins from / south Manchuria
Kuroda was the most prolific of Japanese ornithologists and may arguably be regarded as the father of Japanese ornithology.
Offprints from Tori in the pre World War II years are uncommon, particularly in western libraries.
A collection of birds from the island of Bali In English. 22.5 x 15.1 cm. Pp. [262]263-268.27(1). Original printed cream wrappers. Tokyo, Offprint, Tori, VII, Nos. 33, 34, May, 1932.
Kuroda describes, with measurements and notes, 31 species in a lot collected in Bali by Kaoru Yasuda. Two of the species are considered new for the island. An adult female Rothschild’s Myna is included in the lot.
Not listed in OCLC
A small collection of birds from the island of Bali In English. 22.5 x 15.1 cm. Pp. [64]65-66. Original printed cream wrappers. Tokyo, Offprint, Tori, VIII, No. 36, May, 1933.
Kuroda describes, with measurements and notes, ten species in a lot collected in Bali by Kaoru Yasuda. An adult female and two adult males of Rothschild’s Myna are the stars of the lot. A year earlier, Kuroda described a different lot from the same collector.
Not listed in OCLC
(The conclusion of the call notes in the problem of Eurystomus and Otus s. Japanonicus) In Japanese. 22.4 x 15.1 cm. Pp. (1, blank)68-80. Original printed off-white wrappers. Tori, Tokyo, IX, December, 1935.
Contains uncolored photographic half-tone figures 18-20.
This is an offprint with its own printed wrapper. It contains reference to many specimens providing sex, date of collection (ca 1891-1929 and other information. There is a good deal of discursive text. The subjects are presumably the Dollarbird and the Japanese Scops Owl subspecies.
I can find no reference to this article. Its apparent rarity is probably in part because I’m unable to look for its Japanese title.
(Birds of the Borodino Islands, Japan) In Japanese. 24.0 x 16.4 cm. Off white wrapper printed in Japanese. Pp. 129-130. Tokyo (?), Botany and Zoology, Volume 3, No. 7, July, 1935.
This seems to be an extremely rare offprint. I found it cited in The Auk, LIII, 1936, p. 115. Otherwise, I have been unable to find any reference to it. It is printed entirely in Japanese save for two references to works written in English.
The Borodino Islands (Daito-Jima) are located east of the Riu Kiu islands. Kuroda collected there in 1922 and his more interesting findings were first published (“Descriptions of new forms of birds from the Borodino Islands”) in a letter in the Bulletin of the British Ornithological Club, XLIII, 1923, pp. 120-123. Amongst the birds collected was a unique form of the Varied Tit, which has otherwise never been collected or described.
A glimpse of bird life in the Dutch East Indies 22.4 x 15.1 cm. Wrapper printed in Japanese and English, text in Japanese. Paged in western style, i. e. left-to-right. Pp. [155]156-180. Printed off-white wrappers. (Tokyo) “Reprinted from ‘Tori’, Vol. ix, no 42, pp. 155-180, May, 1936. Contains uncolored half-tone photographs 37-62 with English captions.
The text of this offprint is Japanese, save for citations and Latin names. Many of the photographs depict birds from Java, Lombok, Celebes and New Guinea in zoo settings, often the “Soerabaja Zoo”.
OCLC does not locate any offprints of this article.
An examination on the indivdual variations / among 1,000 teals. 22.4 x 15.2 cm. Offprint with upper wrapper printed in Japanese and English, text in Japanese. Bound and paged in western style i.e. left-to-right and horizontally. (Tokyo)“Tori”, Vol. ix, no. 44, pp. 273-299, June, 1937. Contains uncolored half-tone text figures 96-110.
The author attempts to define the morphological variations associated with a given species, in this case, the Eurasian Teal.
OCLC locates just a single copy of this offprint.
The Richard L. Soffer Ornithology Collection by Richard L. Soffer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.amherst.edu.