| Item Description: | "Revised edition."
Michael Laird, bookseller, description: Contempoary 3/4 dark blue calf by John Carswell of Paisley (Scotland), five raised bands on spine, compartments neatly gilt, red morocco label in the second, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, all edges gilt. With 50 chromolithograph plates after original paintings by J.W. Ludlow and 104 wood engravings in the text. Hinges cracked but firm, no doubt on account of the huge weight of the text upon them. An excellent unsophisticated copy in a comtemporary binding, containing all 50 extraordinary chromolithographs by J.W. Ludlow who specialized in paintings of domestic birds; his poultry illustrations are considered classics and are frequently reproduced today. Each bird is portrayed in a natural farm or henhouse setting; some prints show a single bird, others show two, wither the more showy males, or a pair of male and female. The titles of the prints specify name of breed and prizes. Some also specify owner or name of the bird. For example, Mr. R.B. Wood's pair of Creve-Coeurs won "1st prizes at Wolverhampton Birmingham (Summer Show) Spalding & Chesterfield, 1872," and Mr. Tomlinson's Buff Cochcin Cock 'Sampson' was "winner of the Birmingham Cup in 1860 and 1861." The book was reprinted several times between 1880 and 1911. Chromolithographs of Ludlow's poultry paintings continue to be prized. Books with his poultry illustrations are very often broken up, the plates extracted and sold individually (Fine Rare Prints sell them for |
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