1775 Calao, Hornbill, fine quarto hand colored copper engraving, Ornithology

Engraving on hand laid (verge) paper.   

Issued for the famed First Edition in quarto of the “Histoire naturelle des oiseaux.”, by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, ed. published in Paris ca 1775.   

Made by ‘Mansard’ after ‘Jacques de Seve’. 

Dimensions

Height: 9.85 in. (25 cm)

Width: 7.52 in. (19.1 cm) 

Georges-Louis Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon (September 7, 1707 – April 16, 1788). French naturalist, mathematician, biologist, cosmologist and author. Buffon’s views influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin.   

Jacques de Seve (active 1744-1788), was commissioned by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon to provide the illustrations for Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière (1749-1778, in 36 volumes) and then Buffon's Recueil de Vingtquatre Plantes et Fleurs (1772). He also illustrated work by Duhamel du Monceau, Claude Perrault (later editions) and parts of Encyclopédie Méthodique. His illustrations are sometimes exact anatomical representations or show the animals against landscape backgrounds.