Books and Manuscripts

The Davy-Ashburnham Copy of the Rarest Work on Ichthyology 

Bowdich, (Sarah)
The Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain. Drawn and Described by Mrs. T. Edward Bowdich
London: Printed for the Authoress, and R. Ackermann, 1828-(38). First edition (one of only 50 copies). Large 4to. From the library of English chemist and original subscriber, Sir Humphry Davy. With original front wrapper for No. 1 (March, 1828) bound in at front, and with “Lady Davy Nos”, “Sir Humphrey Davy Bart”,  “Price two guineas”, and “To be paid for on delivery” in manuscript, presumably in the hand of Bowdich. Illustrated with 44 magnificent watercolors of fish by Bowdich, some heightened in gilt and silver, and each captioned and signed by her below image; and one sheet with three uncolored ink drawings of fish (numbered XLV-XLVII); each illustration with accompanying descriptive letterpress text. Text and watercolors on J. Whatman water-marked paper, dated 1827-37. Full contemporary olive green pebbled morocco, elaborately stamped in gilt, boards and extremities rubbed; all edges gilt; by Hering, London; late 19th-century magazine clippings regarding this book, and this very copy, mounted on verso of front blank; some printed plate numbers at rear corrected in contemporary ink manuscript. From the sporting library of American adventurer, naturalist, and sportsman, Brooke Dolan II. Westwood & Satchell, p. 39; Sage, p. 40; Nissen ZBI 517; OCLC 55570550, 960062350, 558221154, 488532216 

Extremely rare first edition of pioneering naturalist Sarah Bowdich's groundbreaking work on ichthyology—from the library of preeminent English chemist, inventor, and original subscriber, Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). Only 50 copies of the current work were ever created by the author, for 47 subscribers, of which only around 20 copies are thought to survive. Produced as a field guide of the most commonly caught freshwater fish found in British ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams, the work contains 44 original watercolor illustrations executed directly from life by Bowdich herself. 

An intrepid naturalist and popularizer of natural history, over her long career Bowdich broke several barriers that limited 19th century women's contributions to scientific inquiry. Early in her life she explored West Africa alongside her first husband, Thomas Edward Bowdich, where she became the first European woman to systematically collect plants from the region. Following Thomas's death in 1824, Bowdich forged an independent career as a naturalist, writer, and illustrator, publishing acclaimed works on natural history and science. In 1825 she completed and published her husband's account of their voyage to Africa, adding her own descriptions of new species and genera of fish, birds and plants, and was the first woman known to have discovered a whole genera of plants. The following year saw the beginning of the current work that would take ten years to finish. During her life Bowdich published nearly 40 books and short stories, including the first biography of her mentor, the French paleontologist George Cuvier (1833), as well as other popular works like Taxidermy (1820), An Introduction to the Ornithology of Cuvier (1821), Elements of Natural History (1844) Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals (1852), among others, many of which remained standard textbooks well into the nineteenth century.

To complete the current work, Bowdich traveled throughout Great Britain, to Essex, Sussex, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Scotland, accompanying fishermen on their trips and painting their catch in situ, typically on the banks of the waters from where they were caught. She describes her artistic method in the Preface, writing that each illustration was “taken from the living Fish immediately (after) it came from the water it inhabited; so that no tint has been lost or deadened, either by changing the quality of that element, or by exposure to the atmosphere.” The fidelity to accuracy cannot be understated. As Bowdich writes in describing the difficult task of capturing the color of a trout, whose tint tended to immediately change color after leaving water, she was “lucky enough to avail myself of the skill of a friend, who supplied me with a succession of them as I sat on the bank, and by which I secured the tints in all their delicacy and brightness.” 

This work was originally issued in 12 installments, with each part containing around four watercolors. Bowdich painted every fish that appeared in every issue, producing almost 3,000 unique paintings, between 1827 and 1837. Each illustration is accompanied by text written by Bowdich, providing the fishes classification or family (using for the first time George Cuvier's then unpublished classification system), as well as a full description of its shape and colors, with information on behavior, instincts and favored environments, all written in a clear and simple language. In explaining the final three uncolored illustrations, Bowdich writes in the accompanying text, “The three last specimens of this work are uncoloured, because it was not in my power to get them alive. They are too insignificant to form into a twelfth Number, and yet the collection would not be complete without them. Mere outlines, therefore, have been given from originals in spirit, kindly lent me by Mr. Yarrell.”

Sir Humphry Davy was the foremost chemist of the early 19th century, remembered as a pioneer in electrochemistry and his isolation of several chemical elements, including potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and barium. His early work on the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide and their pleasurable effects, led to his appointment as a lecturer at the Royal Institution in London, where he quickly gained a reputation as a gifted researcher and popular lecturer. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1803 and was awarded the prestigious Copley Medal in 1805 for his research on tanning and electricity. Over the next decade he conducted some of his most important research, particularly on electrolysis, successfully isolating several chemical elements, as well as discovering boron, hydrogen telluride, hydrogen phosphide, and iodine. Knighted in 1812, he was created a baronet in 1818, and served as the President of the Royal Society from 1820-27. His invention of a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres such as coal mines, called the Davy Lamp, is credited with saving thousands of lives of miners, while his creation of the arc lamp, in 1809, was a predecessor of the electric light. Following his retirement he turned to more literary pursuits, and in 1828, he published Salmonia: or Days of Fly Fishing, modeled after Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler. It was during this same time that he became one of the first subscribers and principal patrons to Bowdich's acclaimed work (he is listed seventh on the list) which, upon his death a year later, was continued by his wife.

Brooke Dolan II (1908-45) was an American adventurer, naturalist, sportsman, and book collector. Educated at Harvard University and Princeton University, he later became a trustee of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. During the 1930s he led two notable expeditions to China and Tibet, collecting numerous specimens that he sent back for the Academy's collection. In 1942, during World War II, he was recruited to serve in the OSS (precursor of the CIA) and traveled to Lhasa with Ilya Tolstoy (grandson of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy), searching for supply routes to China for the Allied Forces. During this time they established contact with the Tibetan government and met the seven-year-old 14th Dalai Lama--the first Americans to ever do so. He then joined the Army Air Forces, and the United States Military Observer Group in Western China, behind Japanese lines near Mao’s headquarters. He died in 1945.

A great rarity with fine provenance, this is the first copy to come to auction in the past eight years, and is only the ninth complete copy to come to auction since the Dean Sage sale in 1942. OCLC locates only 14 copes, 13 of which are complete.