Sciences naturelles

1850 · rif. 2676 — Philadelphia:: The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 1850. First edition. Fine with original hand-coloring. A Fine original hand-colored lithograph. Folio 9.25 x 13 inches 235 x 330 mm. The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia was established by the learned naturalists of high Philadelphian society in early 19th century America to document the recent natural discoveries of a new nation. The founding members and contributors were the luminaries of early American natural history and sciences; Titian Peale Thomas Say and George Ord to name a few. The Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences was their clarion and was illustrated with wonderful folio-sized hand-colored lithographs by J.T. Bowen and Co. in Philadelphia America's premier lithographers of the mid-19th century and the very same company to produce John James Audubon's landmark lithographs for the first seven Royal Octavo editions of the Birds of America c. 1840-65 and both the Imperial Folio and Royal Octavo editions of the Quadrupeds of North America. c.1840-54. In essence the same artists and printers who produced Audubon masterful lithographs created this work. We classify these fabulous plates as one of the best unsung values in the art of 19th century Americanornithology. The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, unknown