Rothschild, M. de and H. Neuville
Recherches sur l'okapi et les girafes de l'est Africain.
Paris, Masson, 1910-1911. Two parts in one. Large 8vo (23.8 x 15.3 cm). Title page, hand-coloured frontispiece, 279 [93; 186] pp., 78 [27; 51] groups of text figures, 11 [5; 6] double-sized plates, of which one partly coloured. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Spine with five raised bands and gilt title. Original printed wrappers bound in.
A rare, complete set of these important contributions to the knowledge of the okapi and giraffes, including a finely coloured plate of the okapi (frontispiece), and a double-sized plate of two species of giraffe, one of which is the Giraffa camelopardis rothschildi, described by Lydekker. This work contains excellent illustations of skeleton parts, teeth, etc., etc. It was published in two parts in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Zoologie, but these are the offprints, with their separately printed wrappers. The frontispiece is plate one of the first part, so the total number of plates is 12. Maurice Edmond Karl de Rothschild (1881-1957) "was an art collector, vineyard owner, financier, Senator of France, and one of the most financially successful members of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France" (Wikipedia). In 1904-1906 he organized a scientific expedition to Ethiopia and central Africa). The naturalist Henri Neuville (1872-1946) was director at the Laboratoire de zoologie comparative de l'Ecole pratique des hautes études in Paris. Handwritten, signed dedication by Neuville on the half title of the first part and pictorial (mammalogical) bookplate of the Dutch biologist Arie Scheygrond (1905-1996) on the blank front free endpaper verso. A very good copy. Despite the fine illustrations not in Nissen.