The Herring Gull

Nozeman, Cornelius. Jan Christien Sepp, Christian Andreas Sepp, N. Muis & Wybrand Hendriks. The Herring Gull. Larus argentatus. "Larus, Cinerus. " Amsterdam Jan Christien Sepp & Zoon, Boekverkoopers. 1770-1829
Copper engraved print of the Herring Gull with original hand colouring. from Cornelius Nozeman's "Nederlandsche Vogelin."
Inset, on banner, of the Gull's egg. Clean and bright; a large image. so very little margin top and bottom.

Cornelius Nozeman, (1712- 1786) was a Dutch clergyman and ornithologist, proposed to publish the first complete illustrated work of the birds of Holland "Nederlandsce Vogelin" in 5 volumes. In partnership with the Sepps. father Christien (1700-1775) & Jan Christien (1739-1811) with their expertise in natural history, illustration and printing were to be responsible for the plates, ; also to publish and sell the work; Nozeman wrote the text for Volune1 and most of Volume 2 before his death in 1786.
They proposed that each volume should cover one species and contain fifty copper engraved, hand coloured plates, lifesize if possible, with accompanying descriptive text

The ambitious project took 60 years to complete and was still in production when Nozeman died in 1786. Christien Sepp had died earlier in 1775.
The Sepp family under Jan Christien engaged physician Martinus Houttuyn (1720-1798) to continue the work and then later CJ Temminck. It was left to Jan Sepp. the third generation to finally finish the work in 1829 following his father's death in 1811.

John Landwehr in" Dutch books with Coloured Plates" mentions that the complete 5 volume work was sold for 525 Florins which made it the most expensive Dutch book for sale at the time.
Anker:369; Nissen:684; Landwehr p96, no 145. 353 by 495mm (14 by 19½ inches).   ref: 1618  €320