Beschreibung:

BRASHER, REX. 1869-1960. Birds and Trees of North America. Chickadee Valley near Kent CT: [The author], 1929-32. 12 volumes. Oblong folio (308 x 445 mm). 867 hand-colored plates. Publisher's half suede and pictorial boards, gilt-lettered. Rubbed, minor browning and spotting. LIMITED EDITION, number 5 of approximately 100 sets (from a planned print run of 500), singed by Brasher on the title pages. "This monumental work is the most ambitious publication of colored plates executed in this century. Mr. Brasher's loving care bestowed on each hand-colored plate is in the tradition of a hundred years earlier ... Brasher's 'Birds and Trees' belongs in a special category that is unique. Brasher has not written a great deal but his pages are interlarded with poetic imagery, often printed in contrasting italic or manuscript-style type. He has been content to stand on his paintings and the time-consuming method of their reproduction. His work stands apart on the sidelines of time, not to be judged with his contemporaries, nor indeed to be criticized. It is simply Rex Brasher" (Ripley & Scribner Ornithological Books in Yale including the Library of W.C. Coe p 39). The plates were made by a complicated process, beginning with photogravure of each original, then hand-colored by Brasher using an airbrush and pochoir process. Although 500 copies of the set were planned, the work was apparently a victim of the Depression and the print-run was reduced to 100.