William Lewin | The Birds of Great-Britain with their Eggs, 1789-1794, 7 volumes in 3

William Lewin

The Birds of Great Britain with their Eggs. London: printed for the author; and sold by Leigh and Sotheby, 1789-1794

7 volumes in 3, 4to (312 x 258 mm.), dedication leaf, 323 hand-coloured watercolour and gouache drawings of birds (271) and eggs (52), index at end of volume 7, nineteenth-century tree calf, spines gilt in six compartments, original morocco letter-pieces, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, small tears to Plate 21, Volume 1 and Plate 169, Volume 5 (not affecting illustrations), rebacked, extremities slightly rubbed

One of only sixty sets illustrated entirely with gouache drawings by Lewin, and as such unique among bird books. The vast energy required for the production of sixty sets each comprising 323 drawings (nearly twenty thousand individual pictures in all) establishes The Birds of Great Britain as a singular monument in English ornithology.

Lewin's birds are depicted in much livelier attitudes than the birds of earlier artists, as he drew chiefly from life rather than relying on specimens.

LITERATURE:

Anker 306; Fine Bird Books, p. 91; McGill/Wood, p. 435; Nissen IVB 562; Zimmer, p. 395