Author: JOHN EDWARD GRAY
Title: Gleanings from the menagerie and aviary at Knowley
Date: 1846
Price: GBP £ 25,000
Book Code:

Gleanings from the menagerie and aviary at Knowley Hall. Knowsley, printed for private distrubution, 1846

[with:] Gleanings... [vol 2] Hoofed quadrupeds. Knowsley, [printed for private distribution], 1850

2 vols, folio (555 x 374 mm), I: pp [x]  with 17 handcoloured lithographed plates; II: [iv] 76, with 62 lithographed plates, of which 53 are coloured (43 handcoloured, ten colour-printed) and 9 uncoloured; in vol two a couple of marginal tears discretely repaired, some occasional slight spotting, a few plates cut close, both vols in original green cloth with gilt lettering ‘Knowsley Hall' on upper covers, green morocco spines, slightly worn.    
                                                                                                    £25,000

First edition, presentation copy inscribed by Gray, of the two great books on the animals of Knowsley menagerie, published in 100 copies only for private distribution. The first is the work of Edward Lear (1812-1888), and features seven plates of mammals, nine of birds, and one of a turtle. Lear spent several years between 1831 and 1837 in residence at Knowsley Hall, the seat of Lord Stanley, the 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851). Lord Stanley had assembled a magnificient private menagerie and, on the advice of Dr Gray, commissioned Lear to illustrate his collection. These years were some of the happiest in Lear's life, and it was during this time that he began his Nonsense Books, and also composed The owl and the pussycat, in order to entertain the children in the Knowsley nursery.
The second volume is one of the few great mammal atlases of the ninetenth century. Very few copies have so many plates coloured (see below); this copy has the maximum number.
Lord Derby created the famous menagerie in the grounds of Knowsley Hall even before he succeeded to the Earldom in 1834. From specimens collected by the many naturalists he equipped and sent out to explore remote regions, he built up one of the finest and largest zoological collections in England. At his death the menagerie was disposed of by auction.
The present plates of ungulated quadrupeds were made after drawings by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894) of living animals at Knowsley, and were coloured, or sometimes printed in colour, under his superintendence. They are accompanied by Lord Derby's notes on the habits of the animals depicted. The majority depict deer and antelope (a number of young animals are featured), many against natural backgrounds. There are four plates of llamas and seven fine plates of zebras and zebra mules. Included is a plate depicting a male and female quagga. This species became extinct soon afterwards, the last know specimen (reputedly originating from Knowsley) dying in Amsterdam Zoo in 1883.
Waterhouse Hawkins, as a result of the influence of Lord Derby, was appointed assistant superintendent for the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. He created the 33 life-size models of dinosaurs that adorned the grounds.
In the Hoofed Quadrupeds, the plate list calls for 59 plates; in addition, there are bis plates 9*, 11* and 48*. Nine plates are uncoloured (23, 38, 43-48, 48bis, and 53 coloured; the majority of these are handcoloured but a few are colour-printed, some with hand finishing (9, 9bis, 12, 22, 36, 37, 39, and 42). 53 appears to be the maximum number of colour plates issued. Gray presented two copies to the British Museum (Natural History), of which one has only 17 colour plates, while the other has 53, as here. A few of the plates are printed right to the plate edge, and a few have slightly shorter margins, in a couple of instances affecting the plate captions; this also is in common with other copies.

Provenance: presentation inscription on first title ‘John Henderson ... with Dr Gray's kind regards'; discrete stamp of the North Devon Athenaeum, H. H. Sharland bequest on verso of title

Wood 1850; Wood ZBI 1691