Oeuvres complètes

Complete new edition of Buffon's works, published in Paris by Eymery between 1825 and 1828 according to the arrangement established by the Comte de Lacépède and completed by the supplementary volume issued in 1828. A handsome complete set in 26 bound volumes (13.5 × 21 cm; total shelf length: 103 cm), illustrated with 245 plates: Buffon's portrait engraved by Devéria as the frontispiece, 216 hand-coloured plates - some heightened with gold - including 91 devoted to mammals and 126 to birds, 13 plates in black, and 4 folding maps. Most of the coloured plates were executed by Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, the animal painter successively attached to Empress Joséphine's menagerie and to the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.

Contemporary full glazed calf, spines with raised bands decorated in blind with gilt-point mosaics, gilt rolls at head and foot, twin blond calf lettering-pieces; sides with a large central blind-stamped medallion within a matching blind-tooled border. Spines with some fading and small losses to the upper spine-ends of eight volumes (vols. 1, 5, 9, 11, 23 and 24), tear to the upper joint and lower spine-end of vol. 26. Paper generally fresh, occasional scattered foxing; the majority of the plates remarkably fresh, a few browned in vols. 3, 4, 5 and 10; tear to p. 63 in vol. 11. Armorial bookplate of the library of the Comte Chevreau d'Antraigues.

Interrupted by Buffon's death in 1788, the vast undertaking of the Histoire naturelle found its natural continuation in Étienne de Lacépède. Called upon during the final years of Buffon's life to carry forward the unfinished sections, he successively published the volumes devoted to oviparous quadrupeds and serpents, followed by those on fishes and cetaceans, before undertaking a new arrangement of the entire work. Begun under his supervision, this edition continued after his death in October 1825, concluding with the publication of the supplementary volume in 1828.

Its illustration owes much to Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, one of the foremost animal painters of his generation. Trained in Geneva before joining Empress Joséphine's menagerie at Malmaison and later the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, he devoted much of his career to depicting newly described species with remarkable accuracy; several still bear his name today. The present copy comes from the library of the Comte Chevreau d'Antraigues, as evidenced by its armorial bookplate, a recognised provenance on the French antiquarian book market, where a number of books from the same library have appeared over the years.

One of the finest editions of Buffon's Histoire naturelle, bringing together for the first time in a coherent and uniform set the work as finally arranged by Lacépède.