Histoire naturelle des mammifères, avec les figures originales, coloriées, dessinées d'après des animaux vivans. Cerfs - Deer, Hirschen.

Paris, A. Belin, 1819-1832. Large folio (approximately 53 x 35 cm). 30 hand-coloured lithographed plates with explanatory text leaves. Not bound, as issued. = A magnificent publication with fine large plates of mammals from all over the world. The authors, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) and Fréderic Cuvier (1769-1832) were the leading authorities in mammalogy in the first half of the 19th century, and the "Histoire naturelle des mammifères" is widely regarded as their magnum opus. From this work, these are the deer, including old world and new world species, for instance the moose. Several species have the young (faon) and female (biche) much different from the male, and often they are included on separate sheets. The following are included: le chevreuil (Faone femelle; femelle; mâle); cerf-cochon (biche; [mâle]; biche de la presqu'ile de Malaca; cerf-noir du Bengale ou hippélaphe; le cerf de Wallach et le cerf du Bengale (each on a separate plate); l'axis (femelle; [mâle]) La biche de la Louisiane et le cerf a dagues de l'Amerique Septemtrionale (each on a separate plate); Le cerf de Virginie (also: "dans son plumage d'hyver; and the faon du cerf de Virginie, probably listed in the work as faon du cerf de Louisiàne)"; Le cerf commun (also: biche et son faon); Le daim (et son petite; variété blanche; daim fauve; daim variété noire); Le renne (fem[elle]); l'elan de l'Amerique septentrionale, ou l'original (also poile de hiver); mazame; biche aux pieds techetés ou biche des Mariannes; chevrotain de Java, ou kanchil, male et femelle (each on a separate plate); cerf du Canada, biche. All with text leaves, except the last. Not included is the wapiti, which was among the last plates issued. There is no cerf de la Louisianne pelage hiver, called for in the indexes, instead there is the unrecorded cerf de Virginie pelage hiver. Probably both are the same; the name in the plate caption being different from the one in the text. It is not clear which of the two is wrong, as both are now regarded as the same species. All plates and text as issued, without stamps, annotations or other markings. All text leaves, and all plates uncut, untrimmed, resulting in very big margins. Due to these large margins some edges a bit frayed or with minor tears. The plates are hardly spotted if at all, a few are mildly toned; some text leaves are somewhat spotted but mainly in the margins. Generally this set is in a very good condition. Brunet II, p. 1,536; Nissen ZBI, 1525; Wood, p. 354.