Beautifully hand-coloured proof states, with occasional additions in ink, of the very rare first instalment of a series of prints of the Duke of Braunschweig's (1804-1873) stud horses, plus an additional view of the Harzburg stud farm not included in the list of plates printed on the back wrapper. The first horse depicted is Mirza, a "Silver grey national Arabian with red spots on his left shoulder, presented to the King of England by the Shah of Persia in 1819. As the Persian envoy assured the King, this was the noblest and most excellent Arabian ever to have stood in his master's stables". The other illustrations show mainly descendants of Mirza, who was transferred to the Ducal stables in 1821.
The plate of Mirza would finally appear newly lithographed in reverse with a completely different background, two others would have their background changed and the other three would have only minor changes to the background or none at all. Only plate three contains its final plate number. Even the lithographed wrapper is in a proof state and doesn't include the coat of arms that would appear on the final publication. While the first instalment is already very rare, the second and last instalments are extremely rare, known from only two or three copies.
Possibly the set from the impressive horse library of I.H. Anderhub, the only set known to have coloured plates. Like our copy it includes 7 plates, the 6 from the original instalment plus 1 additional, and although it doesn't mention any proofs or manuscript additions it could be erroneously described, as the manuscript additions are very subtle. When auctioned in 1963 it already had a reserve price of 2600 Deutsche Mark, the second most expensive item of the auction.
No known copy of the final publication are coloured, and because the present are proofs, it is possible it was presented to Duke of Braunschweig himself.
Slightly browned, some minor fraying to the extremities of the leaves and a few specks, otherwise in very good condition. Front and back wrappers separated, slightly frayed along the extremities and a couple minor smudges, but still good. Bibliotheca Hippologica I.H. Anderhub (1963), 238 (this set?); WorldCat (2 copies, incl. 1 of the first instalment only); not in Bibl. hippologica Johan Dejager; Huth; Mennessier de la Lance; Podeschi; for Pirscher: Thieme & Becker XXVII, p. 90.