Traité de fauconnerie.Leiden & Düsseldorf, Arnz & Co., 1844-1853. Elephant folio (55.5 × 73.5 cm). Tinted lithographed title-page with a pictorial border comprising 11 scenes of hawking by J. B. Sonderland, 2 hand-coloured lithographed plates of falconry equipment by Portman and Von Wouw, and 10 (of 12) hand-coloured lithographed plates of hawks by Wendel after Joseph Wolf (8 mounted on paperboard). Stored loosely in the original publisher’s cloth-backed printed boards.

[4], 90, VI, [2] pp.First and only edition of a superb work, the finest work on falconry that has ever been produced both on account of the beauty of the plates and general accuracy of the text. The lifesize illustrations of the birds are by far the finest ever produced in any book on falconry. “It is impossible to describe the mellowness and beauty of the colourings” (Schwerdt). This famous book on falconry by H. Schlegel and A.H. Verster van Wulverhorst is known chiefly for its lifesize coloured illustrations of birds of prey, lithographs after watercolours by Josef Wolf. The extensive research in the literature and the description of procedures by two laymen in the field of falconry still cause amazement among falconers.The work contains 17 illustrations: successively the tinted title-page, two coloured plates with hunting gear and falconer's equipment, two tinted plates of pictures of the activities of the Loo Hawking Club (not present) and 12 coloured plates with images of birds of prey in their natural surroundings.The last twelve plates show magnificent figures of hawks. Perhaps the most famous is that of the “Groenlandais” or white gyrfalcon, which Tuijn shows to have been based on a portrait of the bird by Pierre Louis Dubourcq (1815-73). The other plates are from originals by Josef Wolf (1820-99) the “German artist who ranks among the world's finest animal painters” (Jackson).Covers of portfolio somewhat rubbed and stained; spine cloth and extremeties professionally restored. Some foxing and browning in the plates; several marginal tears and chips professionally repaired; rebacked. Lacks 2 lithographed hawking scenes by J. Dillmann after Sonderland. Still an attractive set, rarely encountered in the original portfolio as issued.l Harting, p. 194 (“The finest work on falconry which has ever been produced”); Nissen IVB 832; Schwerdt II, 150; Thiebaud 833; Zimmer p. 554; Pieter Tuijn, “On the Traité de fauconnerie (1845-53)”, in: Quaerendo, 25 (1995), pp. 289-306.