| Item Description: | Michael Laird, bookseller, description: With two plates. Contemporary French calf, worn. Early ownership inscription on title-page, cancelled. A good, complete copy, with faults to the binding, and priced accordingly. The first monograph on the Canary bird according to Birkhead ("The Red Canary," 2014). The work proved immensely popular and was reprinted many times in the 18th-century (1711, 1712, 1713, 1734, 1745, 1766, 1774). Joseph-Charles Hervieux de Chanteloup (1683-1747) was "the ultimate canary connoisseur" (again according Birkhead) who was the keeper of the Princesse of Condé's canaries. Hervieux gives an exhaustive account of canaries: their history, illnesses (and cures), cages, food, and breeds. Included is two remarkable musical "scores" a canary's song, something that Hervieux, an authority on this specialized subject, was well qualified to present. |
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