Paris, Levrault, 1801-1805. Two colour-printed plates with printed captions in French. In uniform glazed frames with elegant gilt wooden frames. Visible surface 34.5 x 28.0 cm; frame size 55.0 x 48.0 cm.

Two fine plates from Levaillant's Histoire naturelle des perroquets (1801-1805) drawn by one of the foremost natural history illustrators, Jacques Barraband (1767-1809), who also illustrated Levaillant's equally famous Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de Paradis (1807), and Daudin's Histoire naturelle des rainettes, grenouilles et crapauds (1802). “François Le Vaillant (1753-1824) was born in Paramaribo, the capital of Dutch Guiana (Surinam), the son of the French consul. When his father returned to Europe, in 1763, he studied natural history at Metz. He was sent by the Dutch East India Company to the Cape Province of South Africa in 1781, and collected specimens there until 1784. .... Le Vaillant died in poverty in La Noue, near Sézanne (Marne).” (Wikipedia). The birds illustrated are "Le Perroquet Jaune écaillé de rouge" [probably Psittacus paradisi(L.), an extinct bird from Cuba], and "Le perroquet Tavoua" [the festive amazon, Amazona festiva (L.), from the Amazon region in South America]. Small chip in one frame; some light spotting, otherwise in a very good condition.