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The Pelster Collection – Illustrated books on birds

27th February, 2024

This week Silke Lohmann spoke with Bernard Shapero of Shapero Rare Books, about the upcoming catalogue ‘The Pelster Collection’ of approximately 50 illustrated books on birds, specifically parrots, including highlights such as Edward Lear’s ‘Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots’ published in 1832 with an asking price of £135,000.

Bernard, you started your career in 1979 and you have specialised in Natural History books for years, so is this catalogue one of the highlights of your career?

This is certainly one of the finest collections of parrot books we have ever seen or dealt in.

One of the three top highlights is Lear’s ‘Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots’, what makes it so special and how often have you come across a first edition of this masterpiece?

The Lear Parrots is seen as the finest of all Parrot books and is very rare due to it having been available only to subscribers; there were only 175 copies. Lear is one of Britain’s finest illustrators and artists of the 19^th century and therefore to have an entire oeuvre of his dedicated to just one species of bird is something very special. He started painting parrots in 1830 when he was only 18 years old. Many of the sketches were made from parrots in the Zoological Gardens at Regent’s Park (near to Lear’s home), whilst others were done from parrots in private collections. Lear transferred the designs to lithographic stones which were then printed off by Hullmandel, coloured by hand, and sent to the subscribers.

Why do you feel that Lear is more desirable than the Levaillant or the Bourjot Saint-Hilaire?

Lear is far more famous an artist than the French pair and his depictions of the birds is the most artistic of the three.

The 19ᵗʰ Century was the heyday of Natural History Books – which books are you most excited to include in the catalogue?

The Bourjot, is probably one of the most exciting books in the collection because it is a unique copy with five original watercolours. It is one of the rarest works on parrots and a worthy companion to Levaillant. The work was issued in 29 livraisons as a supplement to Levaillant’s Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801-1805), and was published in both imperial folio and 4to formats. It is considered as a separate work and includes many of the species discovered in the 30 years that had elapsed since Levaillant had completed his work. It also has a very illustrious provenance of Marcel Jeanson, who was one of the biggest collectors of Bird books in the 20^th century.

Is there a book you wish you could have included in the catalogue and why?

For parrot books the collection is pretty much complete for all the finest works.

Which countries were leading in Natural History books?

France and Britain were the leading exponents of illustrated Ornithological works in the 19^th century, before that the leading artists were from the Low Countries and Germany.

The earliest book is Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Ornithologiae, a first edition published in 1599 in Bologna – at £4,500 it is at the lower price range of bird books included. Why is that?

The Aldrovandi is only the Ornithological section of a much bigger work on all the animal kingdom, that is partially why it is not so much money.

Also the illustrations are in black and white, generally bird book collectors like the illustrations to be in colour. However, it is a fascinating book and although there is no ‘colour’, it contains magnificent full-page illustrations of numerous species, including eagles, owls, ostriches, woodpeckers, etc. Each chapter describes in great detail not only the various subspecies but also their medicinal uses, the fables and proverbs in which they are the protagonists, the hieroglyphs and coins on which they appear, and other various topics of considerable interest. Mythological birds such as harpies are also included in the discussion.

One of the most recent publications is by Elizabeth Butterworth (born 1949), probably the finest parrot artist since Edward Lear, and her large folio of Macaws from 1993, tell us more about why her work is so outstanding.

Elizabeth’s work is of the finest quality with fantastic detail. She has that rare talent of combining scholastic accuracy with artistic beauty. She is a great observer and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of her subject. She has bred Macaws, looked after them and sketched them in her back garden as well as in the rain forests of South America.  This work had been ten years in the making and her most spectacular work with life-size illustrations and brilliant colouring.

What advice would you give collectors starting off in Natural History and in particular bird books?

Find an area that particularly interests you, whether it be Birds, Flowers or an Animal and do your research on what is available, speak with a dealer to help you locate a good bibliography of the type of books that you want to collect, and then start to build your collection from there.

The catalogue will be released soon – look out for it on the Shapero website and our Catalogues page!