R1,500 - R1,800
R1,700
THE BIRDS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA (Limited Edition) by C. G. Finch-Davies & Dr. Alan Kemp
Johannesburg: Winchester Press, 1982
4to, 488pp. Original hardcover binding, with gilt lettering to front board. With dust jacket. Includes 176 colour plates, collated and complete. Book comes in slipcase.
Limited edition of 3000 copies, of which this is no. 1598.
The publisher, Winchester Press, produced an exact same copy of this book, which mean there are two copies of this edition in existence.
Claude Gibney Finch-Davies (24 May 1875 – 4 August 1920) was a British soldier, ornithologist and painter who produced a series of paintings of birds of South Africa in the early part of the 20th century. As a professional soldier Davies was posted to various remote places in the Eastern Cape, and this fostered an interest in natural history and in particular, birdlife. Within a year or two, he was collecting bird specimens and starting sketches and paintings. In his field sketchbooks he provided copious notes about each species he illustrated - at first his own field observations, but later augmented by information culled from books and scientific journals. His style of painting rapidly evolved to show great detail of the plumage while retaining a lifelike appearance. By 1905 he had produced some 200 paintings of consistently high quality.
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