COLOR PLATES. 170 Chromotafeln aus Brehms Tierleben. Säugetiere (Band I-III; 52 Tafeln); Vögel (Band IV-VI; 55 Tafeln); Niedere Tiere (Band VII-X; 63 Tafeln). 3 Bände. [170 chromolithographs from Brehm's Animal Life. Mammals (Volumes I-III; 52 plates); Birds (Volumes IV-VI; 55 plates); Lower Animals (Volumes VII-X; 63 plates). 3 volumes.]

Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1885. First thus.

170 BRILLIANT CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS FROM BREHM'S THIERLEBEN--MANY COPIES INCLUDED IN BOOKS BY DARWIN AND E O WILSON.

Scarce complete separate edition of the Chromolithographs for Brehms Thierleben. The beautiful colored plates here mounted on strong cardboard sheets unbound in three 24x33 cm hardcover folders in brown cloth linen binding with printed title and decorative borders to covers and folding card flaps, each folder containing title sheet with list of plates. FOLDER 1 (Mammals, Parts I-III; 52 plates); FOLDER 2 (Birds, Parts IV-VI; 55 plates); FOLDER 3 (Lower Animals, Parts VII-X; 63 plates). LAID IN: 10X14 cm postcard portrait of Brehm with first day of issue German postage stamp honoring him (19.06.1984). Folders very good with wear to corners, plates very good with scattered foxing of mounting cards, not affecting lithographs. Two of the mounting cards have a small tear to one corner.

ALFRED EDMUND BREHM (1829 – 1884) was a German zoologist and writer. His multi-volume book Brehms Tierleben, became a household word for popular zoological literature. He was the first director of the Zoological Garden of Hamburg. Baron Johann Wilhelm von Müller, a well-known ornithologist, was looking for a companion for an African expedition. Brehm joined the expedition on 31 May 1847 as a secretary and as a collecting assistant to von Müller. The expedition took him to Egypt, the Sudan, and the Sinai Peninsula; the discoveries made were so important that, at age 20, Brehm was made a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina. His essays and expedition reports from the animal world were well received by the educated bourgeoisie; because of this, he was commissioned by the editor of the Bibliographisches Institut, Herrmann Julius Meyer, to write a large multivolume work on the animal world. Brehms Tierleben (Brehm's Animal Life) is a scientific reference book, one of the first modern popular zoological treatises. First published in German as a six volume work that was completed in 1869 it was published by the Bibliographisches Institut of Herrmann Julius Meyer with illustration directed by Robert Kretschmer (1812-1872). The second edition, completed in 1879 had ten volumes. It was translated into several European languages. As of the second edition, which consisted of ten volumes published from 1876 to 1879, the work was already titled Brehms Tierleben. The work made Brehm famous around the world and its title is still a catchphrase today, even though science has gone far beyond Brehm. Perhaps the greatest change in the second edition was the addition of new illustrations by Gustav Mützel (1839 – 1893), the brothers August Specht (1849 - 1923) and Friedrich Specht (1839 – 1909) and others.. Charles Darwin wrote to his publisher, John Murray, recommending a translation of Brehms Tierleben because it was "quite excellent, & the illustrations are admirable". He then asked the German publisher for permission to use the engraved blocks: 14 of the illustrations (birds and monkeys) were included in The Descent of Man, published in 1871. The separately published complete collection of the illustrations offered here was issued in 1885, the year after Brehm's death. Eight of the plates are reproduced in E. O. Wilson's Half Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life. New York, W. W. Norton (2016).