Valued at £80,000-120,000, this one of a dozen or perhaps even fewer copies that were printed in gold throughout - even the captions to the 190 engraved plates of humming-birds, jacamars and birds of paradise by and after Jean Baptiste Audebert, which were themselves printed in colours by Langlois and in some cases heightened with gold.
Only two other copies of the work in this form have been offered at auction since 1900 (one of which was incomplete) and this is the copy that was armorially bound in blue morocco gilt by Simier for Marie-Louise-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Bourbon-Sicile, the duchesse de Berry.
The collection also includes one of the 200 copies of the work that were printed with just the captions not the text in colour, and that one, uncut in worn but contemporary blue boards, is valued at £15,000-20,000.
