Trait de Fauconnerie.

Folio (556 x 735 mm). (6), VI, 90 pp. Tinted lithographed title with a pictorial border comprising 11 scenes of hawking by J. B. Sonderland, 2 hand-coloured lithographed plates of falconry equipment by Portman and von Wouw, and 10 (of 12) hand-coloured lithographed plates of hawks by Wendel after Joseph Wolf (8 of which mounted on board). Stored loosely in original cloth-backed printed boards. First edition of "the finest work on falconry that has ever been produced; not only on account of the beauty of the plates, wherein the hawks are depicted life-size and of the natural colours, but also for the general accuracy of the letterpress" (Harting). Schwerdt concurs that "the life size illustrations of birds are by far the finest ever produced in any book on falconry. It is impossible to describe the mellowness and beauty of the colourings." The "Trait de fauconnerie" is the rarest, most beautiful and most desirable book on falconry ever published. According to the exhibition catalogue documenting the falconry books in the Dutch Royal Library (The Hague, 1993), probably no more than 100 copies were printed, of which no more than 50 can be located today. - Covers of portfolio somewhat rubbed and stained; spine cloth and extremeties professionally restored. Some foxing and browning to plates; several marginal tears and chips professionally repaired and rebacked. Lacking 2 lithographed hawking scenes by J. Dillmann after Sonderland. Still an attractive set, uncommonly encountered in the original portfolio as issued. - Harting 194. Schwerdt II, 150. Thiebaud 833. Nissen IVB 832. Fine Bird Books, p. 105. Zimmer p. 554.