Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa, Delineated from their Native Haunts, During a Hunting Expedition from the Cape Colony as far as the Tropic of Capricorn in 1836 and 1837, with Sketches of the Field Sports. – Cornwallis Harris, Captain W.

Imperial folio (55.5 x 39cm), [15pp.], including 3pp list of subscribers, 175 pp, [2] 30 full page coloured lithographed plates. This first issue, first edition has the additional coloured vignette title page and the lithographed chapter tailpieces. Ex libris to the front pastedown endpaper, some newspaper cuttings from the period have been tipped onto the front free endpaper. Some spotting and foxing, though the plates remain bright. An exceptional copy free from any restoration and bound in the original half red morocco binding with gilt stags and tigers to the spine. Some scuffing to the leather and rubbing and scratches to the marbled paper covered boards. “One of the most important and valuable of the large folio works on South African fauna. In the prospectus of the volume, which appeared in the “Narrative of an Expedition into Southern Africa” (Bombay, 1838), it is stated that the publication of the ” twenty-eight original paintings ” was made with the “object to combine in them, as far as possible, information which might be useful to the Naturalist, the Sportsman, and the Lover of Wild Scenery.” The delineations of the quadrupeds were “drawn from repeated measurements upon a uniform scale of one and a half inches to a foot. One or more of each species is depicted in the foreground of an appropriate landscape, twelve by seventeen inches, with groups in the distance or middle ground.” This arrangement has enabled the author ” to convey an accurate idea of the nature of the country inhabited by each species,; also their manner of living, in numerous herds, in small families, or singly. It was estimated that the expense of publishing the volume would be £5000, and at the time the advertisement appeared 250 subscribers had been obtained at £10. The list given in the volume, however, is far larger, and 449 copies are accounted for amongst the names given. In addition to the beautiful coloured engravings which render this work almost the most highly prized of the books relating to South African animals, every plate is accompanied by an exhaustive chapter upon the characteristics of the animal represented, as well as by a short sketch of its personal appearance, &c., and numerous engravings in the letterpress illustrate the notes.” (Mendelssohn, South African Bibliography, vol.1, 1957, pg.688)

Publisher: W. Pickering
Date Published: 1840
Publication Place: London
First Edition: Yes

Condition: Very good
Binding: Hardcover

Dimensions: Folio, 55.5 x 39cm