Russia
LYDEKKER, R[ichard].
A trip to Pilawin The deer-park of Count Joseph Potocki in Volhynia Russia.
Rowland Ward, London 1908. First edition. Small 4to., xiv, 115pp., 2 pages ads at end, original light blue cloth gilt, photographic onlay to front cover, top edge gilt, ex-Bowdoin College copy with blind-stamp to title, label to spine, near withdrawal label to pastedown, still a very fresh, clean copy, more or less untouched.
Scarce and important record of sport and preservation before the Great War. In his preface, the noted sportsman Potocki (author of Sport in Somaliland, etc.) recounts how he started the preserve at Pilawin to provide a wild habitat for the breeding of elk and that his success encouraged him to import American and Siberian wapiti, the red deer of the Caucasus, and other animals. He was given a breeding pair of European bison from the royal preserve of Bielowicz, and added a herd of American bison as well. The Pilawin preserve, near the Potocki palace of Antoniny (in present day Ukraine), comprised more than 7,000 acres of forests and meadows enclosed by an eight-foot high wooden paling and was part of a larger forest of some 50,000 acres.
Price: £ 1250
US Dollar Price: $ 2480
Stock Number: 69729