The Birds of Prey of Southern Africa (1980)

This was the third of the books based on the more than one thousand works of C G Finch-Davies - hailed as South Africa's greatest bird painter - that had been held in safekeeping in the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria for the more than half century since the artist's death in 1920. (The first book of his painting was published in his lifetime, in 1912, with text by Major Boyd Horsbrugh - republished by Winchester Press in 1978 - and the second was a biography of the artist, also by Alan Kemp, illustrated with 12 of Finch-Davies's paintings.)

This, copy 964/1500 of the standard Subscribers' edition, is in exceptionally good condition.

For the fourth book on this artist's work, see Lot 213. Lot 212 usually has a higher value than its more substantial successor because all the copies of the various numbered editions were sold prior to publication.

Finch-Davies illustrated all the birds of prey, including owls, known in the early part of the 20th century. Only eight other species have been identified since then.

The colour dustjacket is chipped at the head of the spine and there is some brown spotting at the back. The brown cloth covers, gilt to the spine, are in their original condition. The binding is tight. The plain cornflower endpapers, colour frontispiece and 339 pp of introduction and commentary, including 140 full-page bird paintings, all in colour, are all unmarked and undiscoloured.