RENARD, LouisBiblio.com
Poissons ecrevisses et crabes de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires que l'on trouve autour des Isles Moluques et sur les côtes des Terres Australes.
1754ABC_46313Amsterdam: Reinier & Josua Ottens 1754. Contemporary calf richly-gold tooled spine and bords green morocco spine label with title in gold decorated edges marbled endpapers. Preserved in a professionally made black cloth box with a black morocco spine label with the author title and imprint in gold. Folio. Title-page in red and black a divisional-title for each volume and 100 engraved plates numbered 1-43 & I-LVII no. LVII folding vividly hand-coloured as published showing 460 fishes and other marine animals. 2 volumes bound as 1. Renard's famous but rare work noted for the spectacular imagery of colourful but also bizarre tropical fishes crabs and lobsters from the Indo-Pacific being the first colour-plated fish book here in its rare second edition. The book contains 100 plates with 460 originally and extraordinary hand-coloured copper engravings divided over two volumes with their own half-title 'Histoire naturelle des plus rare curiositez de la mer des Indes' of 415 fishes 41 crustaceans two stick insects a dugong and even a mermaid all living in the Indian Ocean between the East Indies. Sometimes the descriptions specifically refer to fishes of some islands in the East Indies as Ambon the Moluccas or Buton but they also contain references to the "fishes of the Antilles Brazil" Sabin and Mauritius. The illustrations in the first volume seems to be quite realistic in contrast to those in the second volume which are sometimes quite surreal which is even more emphasized by the short anecdotical and highly entertaining descriptions.The Amsterdam publisher and bookseller Louis Renard compiled this collection of ichtyological illustrations by copying the sets of drawings which were brought to Amsterdam by Frederik Julius Coyett the son of the governor and ambassador of Ambon and Banda Balthasar Coyett. The drawings in the first part were copied after the collection of Balthasar Coyett. The illustrations in the second part were copied by Samuel Fallours a soldier in the service of the Dutch East India Company who started drawing marine life in the East Indies for the governors after those in the collection of Andriaen van der Stel governor of the Moluccas.The book shows marine life in the East Indies and the Indo-Pacific when Europe knew very little on this subject there. Because of the brilliant colours fantastic shapes and the described habits of its subjects the work however was often dismissed in its own time as fantasy. Nevertheless Renard's Poissons ecrevisses et crabes is nowadays still one of the rarest and most magnificent ichtyological works being the first colour-plated fish book and a highly interesting scientific effort to represent the Indo-Pacific maritime life mixed with flights of fantasy.Spine and joints professionally restored preliminaries a little foxed some minor browning especially in volume 1 but overall in good condition with brightly coloured plates. One of 35 known copies of a rare ichthyological work.l Landwehr Coloured plates 159; Nissen ZBI 3361; Nissen Schone Fischbucher 103; Sabin 69600; cf. Grace Costantino Renard's book of fantastical fish 2016 on https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org; Julie Gardham Louis Renard: Poissons ecrevisses et crabes 2002 on www.gla.ac.uk; Theodore W. Pietsch Fishes crayfishes and crabs . 1995 pp. 22-26. Reinier & Josua Ottens, hardcover
Antiquariaat FORUM BV · Pays-Bas125 000,00 €
