H. BRADLEY MARTIN LIBRARY

The Library of H. Bradley Martin. John Jahmes Audubon. Magnificent Books and Manuscripts.

New York. Sotheby's founded 1744.1989, 1990. 8 volumes. 28x21,5 cm. Green cloth bindings with gilt title on front cover and spine. Coloured Illustration fixed on the front cover of each volume. Back cover with golden embossing showing "Sotheby's founded 1744".

All of the volumes in good very slightly used condition.

Vol./Part I: Audubon and a short curriculum vitae of H. Bradley Martin and some words to John James Audubon: Manuscripts for Ornithological Biography. Lots 1 to 38. With one image each. Vol./Part II: Magnificent Color-Plate Ornithology. Lots 39 to 242. With lots of images, mostly coloured. Vol./Part III: The Original Watercolors for Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology. Lots 243 to 519. With lots of illustrations, mostly in color and a short biography of Prideaux John Selby. Vol./Part IV is missing. Vol./Part V: Highly Important Illustrated and Scientific Ornithology. Lots 1323 to 1977. With lots of images, mostly in black and white. Cutting edge of this volume is spotty! Vol./Part VI: Highly Important American and Chrildren's Literature. Lots 1978 to 2505. With plenty images, some of them in color and a short introduction of the "American Literature from The Library of H. Bradley Martin". Vol./Part VII: Highly Important Printed and Manuscripts Americana. Lots 2506 to 2553. With lots of images, some of them in color. Vol./Part VIII: Highly Important English Literature. Lots 2554 to 3346. With lots of images, mostly black and white and a short introducion of H. Bradley Martins English Literature. Vol./Part IX: Highly Important Printed Books and Illuminated Manuscripts. Lots 3347 to 3672. With lots of images, some of them in color. H. Bradley Martin, 1906-1988. He started collectin books already in 1924. The collection found its direction in 1929 when Mr. Martin began to read the works of W. H. Hudson. By the mid-1930s he was well established as a book collector. Prideaux John Selby, 1788-1867, was an English ornithologist, botanist and artist and landowner. Selby is best known for his Illustrations of British Ornithology (1821–1834), the first set of life-sized illustrations of British birds. He also wrote Illustrations of Ornithology with William Jardine and A History of British Forest-trees (1842). Many of the illustrations in his works were drawn from specimens in his collection. In addition to the above works he contributed to Jardine's Naturalist's Library the volumes on the Pigeons (1835) and the Parrots (1836), the latter illustrated by Edward Lear. (source: Wikipedia) John James Audubon, 1785-1851, was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of North America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species and a number of new sub-species. (source: Wikipedia) A short history of: Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation. The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest in Sweden being Uppsala Auktionskammare founded in 1731.Dorotheum Auction House was founded 1707 in Vienna. Sotheby's predecessor, Baker's, was founded in London on 11 March 1744 when Samuel Baker presided over the disposal of "several hundred scarce and valuable" books from the library of a certain Rt. Hon.Sir John Stanley.