RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 1
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 2
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 3
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 4
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 5
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 6
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 7
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917) - photo 8

RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917)

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£ 5 670
Auction dateClassic
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 993192
Lot 225 | RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917)
RIPPON, Robert Henry Fernando (c.1836-1917)

Icones ornithopterorum: a monograph of the Papilionine Tribe Triodes of Hubner. London: by the author, [1890]-1898-1906-[1910].

A fine copy of one of the rarest entomological works, which became a consuming passion for its author over its twenty-year publication. The birdwings are found in Southeast Asia and Australasia, and include some of the largest and most spectacular species of butterfly. These characteristics are beautifully reproduced in Rippon's illustrations, which he both lithographed and coloured himself. The precise number of copies completed is unclear. Rippon claimed to have over 80 subscribers, but today it seems that far fewer copies than this are extant. R.L. Kitching, in Biology of Australian Butterflies (Melbourne, 1999), asserts that the work 'is now extremely rare, with just 33 known copies'.



The collation of this privately printed work produced over twenty years is somewhat erratic both in respect of text and plates, and it is likely that copies vary slightly in their make-up. The author pays tribute to his printer 'for the great care he has taken in the printing of the letter-press of this work, and for the zealous way in which he and his compositors have striven to serve me in the reproduction of what is necessarily difficult "copy". Mr. Morgan might safely be entrusted with the printing of any scientific work' (preface). Nissen ZBI 3426; BM(NH) 4, 1706; cf. A.H. Kirk-Spriggs, 'Robert Henry Fernando Rippon (ca. 1836-1917), Naturalist and Zoological Illustrator', Archives of Natural History, 22 (1995), 97-118.



2 volumes, folio (380 x 280mm). Half-titles, 2 errata leaves and a total of 110 lithographic plates. Vol I: pp. x, xii 18, 48 and 52 with letterpress overslips mounted over subtitles; full leaf of revised text pasted onto p. 12; pp. 9, 10 and 11 each with two mounted chromolithographic overslips; 53 lithographic plates: 39 with partial hand-colour; 8 uncoloured and 6 hand-coloured lithographic maps, one folding (light marginal finger-soiling, plate 14 with marginal tear repaired with tape). Vol II: half-tone portrait of the author, additional hand-coloured lithographic title, uncoloured lithographic decorative ‘tail-piece’; pp.1, 9, 51, 65, 67, 109 and plates 29, 32, 35, 36, 38, 42-44, 47-50, 51a , B with letterpress overslips mounted over subtitles, captions and plate numbers; pp.1 and 3 with mounted illustrative lithographic overslips; pp. 23-25, 38 and 29 with hand-coloured lithographic illustrations within letterpress and pp.91 and 92 with uncoloured lithographic illustrations within letterpress; 57 lithographic plates: 47 with partial hand-colour; 5 plain and 7 hand-coloured lithographic maps (title creased and with three tears, the largest 70mm, plates with very light offsetting and occasional finger-soiling, most heavily affecting plate L, marginal tear to plate B). Contemporary red morocco by R.H. Porter, covers with borders of two single gilt fillets with small foliate cornerpieces, gilt turn-ins, top edges gilt (upper joint to vol. 2 cracking and front cover almost detached, rubbing to extremities, heavier to joints with a a few chips to spine ends and corners). Provenance: evidence of bookplates removed.





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