W. Cornwallis Harris - PORTRAITS OF THE GAME AND WILD ANIMAL...

Estimate

R80,000 - R120,000

W. Cornwallis Harris - PORTRAITS OF THE GAME AND WILD ANIMALS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

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by Captain W. Cornwallis Harris

London: W Pickering, 1840

FIRST EDITION, folio, [vi] + 175pp, 30 hand coloured lithographs, vignette title, title page, dedication, introduction, list of subscriptions, contents, half bound in green morocco with gilt lettering, top edge gilt, rebound with new eps, wear on boards with surface loss in bottom right corner of front board, title vignette page and two text pages rebacked, margin edges of dedication page and six plates restored, repaired tears in margins of about 20 pages, foxing with heavier foxing on a few text pages, one plate with damp mark in margin crossing edge of print


Cornwallis Harris’s Portraits of Game and Wild Animals is “[o]ne of the most important and valuable of the large folio works on South African fauna.” (Mendelssohn, p.688). It is an unusual work situated at the intersection of science and art. The coloured engravings not only display beautiful depictions of fauna, but are based on numerous measurements to ensure correct scale. The accompanying text is a detailed description of each animal’s characteristics, appearance and habitat. The book also mirrors Harris’s joy of the hunt “… over the broad bosom of the flower-decked prairies of Southern Africa, or engaged in “chance medley” with the four-footed giants that divide among themselves the empire of that hunter’s Elysium.” (Harris, p.vi)

REFERENCES

Mendelssohn, S. South African Bibliography, London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Tuber & Co., 1910

Harris, William Cornwallis. Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa, London: W Pickering, 1844