Author: Jardine, Sir William, Bart., ed
Title: The Naturalist's Library; 38 of 40 Volumes
Description: Edinburgh, W. H. Lizars. Leather Bound. 12mo. Red leather leather bindings. Gilt lettering and decoration to spines. Boards embossed. Page edges gilt. Many wonderfully colored illustrations in each volume. Plates seem to be complete, though "Fishes IV" contains 32 plates, against a stated total of 34, but all listed plates are present. Bookplate to each front pastedown, some scuffing to edges, some spotting, a few spine heads show small chips, larger pulls to three spines, occasional tide marks to edges, one frontispiece loose, one title page creased, one rear hinge split, one loose page, some sunning and shelfwear, one rear joint splitting. Ornithology: 14 volumes, complete; Mammalia: 13 volumes, complete; Ichthyology: 6 volumes, complete; Entomology: volumes 2-6 only, of 7. Sir William Jardine, seventh baronet of Applegirth (1800-1874) was a Scottish ornithologist. He made natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing and issuing the hugely popular forty volumes of 'The Naturalist's Library'. It was divided into four main sections: Ornithology, Mammalia, Entomology, and Ichthyology - each prepared by a leading naturalist (Jardine contributed to the sections on birds and fish). The artists responsible for the illustrations include Edward Lear and Prideaux John Selby (best known for his life-size plates in 'Illustrations of British Ornithology'). This set is remarkable for its over 1,300 hand-coloured steel-engraved plates, which are very popular with collectors; hence complete sets are rarely seen as individual volumes are often broken up for their engravings. .

Keywords: Plate books;Bindings;;;;;;;


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