Voyages, botany, ornithology — and the enduring beauty of the hand-colored plate.
Natural history is among the most visually splendid of all collecting fields, and one of the most intellectually rewarding. It joins the history of science to the history of art, for the great works of botany, ornithology, and exploration were illustrated by the finest hands of their age. Randall House kept a standing interest in the field and in the plate books that are its glory.
The Age of the Plate Book
From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, natural history was recorded in magnificent illustrated folios. Engraved and then hand-colored, the plates of a great flora or a great ornithology were works of art in their own right — Audubon's Birds of America is only the most famous of a long and glorious line. These books were expensive when new and are treasured now, whether complete or as individual plates prized by collectors of natural-history art.
Voyages of Discovery
The literature of exploration overlaps richly with natural history. The published accounts of the great voyages — Cook in the Pacific, the naturalists who sailed with the surveying expeditions, the collectors who followed the frontier — brought back not only narrative but the first descriptions and images of unfamiliar plants and animals. For a California house, the voyages along the Pacific coast held a particular interest, connecting the field to our California & the West department.
Collecting Natural History
Because so many plate books have been broken for their illustrations, complete copies with fresh, well-colored plates command a strong premium. Collation — confirming that every plate and leaf is present — is essential, and expert description is worth seeking. The Biodiversity Heritage Library has digitized an immense archive of the literature, an invaluable free resource for identifying editions and states.
Science, Art, and Permanence
What gives natural history its lasting appeal is its double life as science and as art. A hand-colored ornithological plate is both an accurate record and an object of beauty; a voyage narrative is both data and adventure. That richness — and the sheer visual pleasure of the books — keeps the field perennially in demand. Collectors of the outdoors may also enjoy our Sporting Books department.