The prints, in excellent condition, are beautiful hand coloured plates, drawn by Prêtre and very nicely watercolour hand painted. They are beautifully executed stipple engravings in very fine detail, all with original handcolouring. The colours are bright and very intense on a creamy white medium weight paper. Some are heightened with true gold & silver. They are from a luxury edition. Jean Gabriel Prêtre (1768-1849) was a Swiss-born painter of natural history subjects. He first worked as an illustrator recording specimens in the Empress Josephine's zoo. He went on to be a member of Napoleonic survey of Egypt, between 1798 and 1801, where his work culminated in numerous plates for the Le Description de l'Egypte. In collaboration with fellow artist, Nicolas Hüet (1770-1830), with whom he worked at the Natural History Museum in Paris, he also contributed a lot of original artwork from which plates were engraved for Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux pour servir de suite et de complément aux planches enluminées de Buffon. Prints feature very detailed engravings enhanced by wonderfully rich original hand-coloring.