More than 100 Large Plates of Hunting Scenes, All Richly Colored and in Especially Attractive Condition

VENATIONES FERARUM, AVIUM, PISCIUM. [bound with] VERMIS SERICUS.

(HAND-COLORED PLATES). (HUNTING). STRAET, JAN VAN DER, called STRADANUS.

([London: ca. 1819]). 270 x 370 mm. (10 1/2 x 14 1/2"). 1 p.l., 102 leaves (65, 66, and 54 bound after 102); 6 leaves.

Contemporary dark green half morocco over lighter green grained buckram, raised bands, spine panels with gilt fleuron at center, marbled endpapers. ENGRAVED FRONTISPIECE AND 102 PLATES in first work, FRONTISPIECE AND FIVE PLATES in second work, ALL BEAUTIFULLY HAND COLORED. Schwerdt II, 228. Boards lightly soiled, joints and extremities a bit rubbed, but the binding solid and pleasing; a handful of leaves with neat repairs on verso, minor thumbing, occasional small marginal stains, but uniformly pleasing internally with wide margins and rich hand coloring. A really excellent copy.

Bound here (as often) with the author's treatise on the husbandry of silk worms, this early 19th century edition of Stradanus' celebrated engraved series on hunting is distinguished by the vibrant contemporaneous hand coloring of its lively illustrations. Belgian-born Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605) worked primarily as a tapestry designer in Italy, and the hunting scenes here were taken from his designs executed between 1553-71 for the Duke Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-74), who had commissioned a series of tapestries depicting hunting, fowling, and fishing scenes for the Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano. The plates depict figures, past and present, from all over the known world (including Europeans, Ottomans, Egyptians, and Americans) depicted on foot or on horseback (sometimes assisted by dogs and falcons), using bows, axes, guns, nets, ropes, and spears to hunt all kinds of animals, including elephants, bears, deer, boar, camels, lions, and even unicorns, and dragons. There are also scenes of various imaginative techniques for catching birds and fish, of staged animal fights, and of an historical scene of Roman combat with an orca. While much of the hunting of large mammals relies on brute force and deadly weaponry, the capture of birds seems to inspire the most inventive equipment. Two examples include a baited cone-shaped trap in the ground, into which an unwary goose would insert its head and become trapped, and a doughnut-shaped disc suspended from a pole, into which, in theory, a bird would apparently fly and become captured. It seems perhaps doubtful that this latter method would have a high success rate, but it certainly could have provided hours of amusement. The series illustrating the history and techniques of silk production provides images from the collection of silk worms down to the spinning of silk thread from their cocoons. Our later reissue, printed on heavy Whatman paper watermarked 1819, exactly follows the first edition (of ca. 1580) with the sole exclusion of the dedication to Duke Cosimo de' Medici. Hand-colored copies of our London printing are infrequently found on the market, especially in agreeable condition. (ST20965)

Price: $17,500.00