Thursday, January 25, 2018. Begins at 6:00 P.M.
On Thursday January 25 at 6.00 pm, Quinns Auction Galleries in Falls Church is delighted to present the first on two sales devoted to the Natural World in its many forms, (the second sale is scheduled for May). The sale is the result of a small number of private collectors, chiefly Jim Willis of Virginia, who have consigned a remarkable and sweeping range of highly significant prints, many of them beautifully framed. Animals, birds, botanicals, fish, amphibians and reptiles of all kinds are richly represented in a sale of over 350 lots, featuring more than 2,600 items. Highlights of this sale include: More than 60 plates from Innocente Alessandri and Pietro Scattaglia's "Descrizioni degli Animali: corrispondenti alle cinquanta figure continente in questo ... volume de'quadrupedi." Venice: 1772. 144 plates from "The Birds of America", Amsterdam Edition; Amsterdam and New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1971-1972. The Amsterdam Edition is one of the most faithful and collectible facsimile editions of Audubons original Elephant Folio. More than 250 Plates from several of John Gould's majestic and wide-ranging ornithological titles, including Hummingbirds, The Birds of Great Britain, Europe, Australia, New Guinea and, above all, The Birds of Asia. Individually framed birds include the Kakapo, Triton Cockatoo, Black-mantled Goshawk and Black Falcon. More than 35 plates by Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717). Notably 'Banane' from 'Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium,' Amsterdam, 1715;'Red Ginger Plant' and 'Cayman with Snake,' same title, 1719, 'Water Scorpion, Frogs & Water Beetle', 'Lantern Moth & Pomegranate Flower', and 'Jasmine & Snake' from 'Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphasibus Insectorum Surinamensium,' The Hague: Gosse, 1726. 16 botanical plates by Basilius Besler (1561-1629), including 'Dracontium Maius' and 'Sedum Arborescens' (1613, 1640). More than 60 plates by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann. From 'Phytanthoza iconographia.' 1737. One of the first produced plates featuring color printing (mezzotint). 16 Citrus Plates by Giovanni Battista Ferrari from 'Hesperides, sive, De Malorum Aureorum cultura etusa Libri Quatuor.' c.1646. 84 fish studies by Marcus Elieser Bloch. From 'Ichtyologie, ou Histoire Naturelle, Generale et Particuliere des Poissons' [Ichthyology or natural history, general and particular fish]. Berlin: 1785-1797. Some heightened in silver and gold. Other important prints in the sale include works by Mark Catesby, Albertus Seba, Moses Harris, George Edwards, Prideaux John Selby, Jacques Barraband, Redoute, Emanuel Sweerts, Elias Fries, Georg Knorr, Johann Christoph Volckamer, Elizabeth Blackwell, Abraham Munting and Jan and Caspar Commelin.