British Ornithology contains pioneering life-sized illustrations of British birds by the English ornithologist, Prideaux John Selby (1788-1867). These were drawn from Selby's extensive personal collection of skins and coloured by artists included Daniel McNee. Selby an associate of the preeminent natural history artists of his day, including Audubon, Lear and Jardine.

Selby 'was very gifted as an artist, and the two volumes of Illustrations of British Ornithology are outstandingly beautiful. In many people's estimation, the clarity and crispness of his figures gives them an austere beauty that is lacking in the pretty lithographs of H. L. Meyer's and John Gould's books....The cool, classical quality of Selby's plates belongs to the age of elegance and could have never been achieved by the Victorian John Gould. Selby's bird figures were the most accurate delineations of British birds to that date, and the livliest' (Jackson).

The plates of Illustrations of British Birds were begun in 1821, and issued over the following 13 years in 19 parts, from which the present set (which bear watermarks ranging from 1818 to 1833) was bound up. The irregular intervals in which the work was issued are reflected in the erratic numbering of the plates. A two-volume octavo text was issued but is only rarely found.

2 vols, large folio (65 x 53 cm), Engraved titles, 218 hand-coloured engraved plates and 4 uncoloured by Selby and W.H. Lizars after drawings by Selby, Robert Mitford, Edward Lear, and William Jardine (a few plates slightly trimmed on fore- and lower margins, a couple of plates with soft creases), title-pages with a few vertical creases.) twentieth century half calf antique, contemporary marbled boards (hinges reinforced), a very good clean set.

Ayer/Zimmer 571; Fine Bird Books 141; Jackson, Etchings 201-13; Jackson, Lithography 33, 51; McGill/Wood 561; Mullens & Swann, p.520;Nissen, IVB 853.