Japanese paintings of Birds, Flowers, Insects and Fishes. early 20th century. 4 volumes, painted vellum bindings

JAPANESE NATURAL HISTORY PAINTINGS

Four volumes of paintings of birds, insects, fishes and flowers. [late nineteenth or early twentieth century]

4 volumes, small 4to (205 x 155mm.), c. 490 WATERCOLOURS on paper by several hands, some heightened with varnish, each captioned in Japanese, approximately 200 on laid paper, others on slightly smaller sheets of wove paper, uniformly bound in twentieth century painted vellum bindings by F. Gardner, the bindings with paintings reflecting the contents and titled on the spines, top edges gilt, others uncut, marbled endpapers, housed in two slipcases, light scattered spotting (a few with heavier spotting), some damage and repairs to inner margins of drawings in the birds volume, slight wear to slipcases

An attractively bound set of watercolours.