Were these bird books special copies given to Coenraad Temminck?

The bird with the splendid hairdo pictured right is one of five original watercolours, possibly by Madam Knip herself, found in a special copy of Temminck & Knip’s Histoire naturelle des Pigeons of 1801-11 that sold for £30,000 to a private buyer at Christie’s November 28 sale.

Handsomely bound in contemporary Dutch marbled calf gilt by A. Van Rossum of Amsterdam, where Coenra…

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