Author: Seitz, [F. J.] A.
Title: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde. Eine systematische Bearbeitung der Gross-Schmetterlinge der ganzen Welt. Abteilung I. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge des Palaearktischen Faunengebietes. Volume IV. Die Spannerartigen Nachtfalter.
Description: Stuttgart, Alfred Kernen, 1915. 4to (32.3 x 26,0 cm) in two volumes (text & atlas). Two title pages to each volume; (iii), v, 479 pp.; 25 chromolithographed plates. Publisher's uniform gilt-bordered pebbled half calf over linen boards with bevelled edges; spines rich gilt with lepidopteral vignette, gilt ornamental bands and green morocco label with gilt title. Patterned endpapers. Edges white. = A mint set of single part - in two volumes - of one of the largest and most beautifully illustrated works on butterflies and moths. Its fine plates were made using the process of 10-14 colour lithography, and its excellent quality has remained unsurpassed. The editor, Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz (1860-1938), planned to finish the whole work in 1912. This proved to be quite unrealistic as publication stopped in 1954, and several volumes remained unfinished. The most important collections of butterflies were consulted including those of L. W. Rothschild of Tring, the British Museum, the Paris Natural History Museum, the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfurt, as well as collections in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia, South- and North America, etc. This part, written by the British lepidopterologist and musician Louis Beethoven Prout (1864-1943), and edited by Seitz, deals with temperate old world geometrid moths - a surprisingly diverse group. Prout's sister, Alice Ellen Prout (1871-1957), prepared many fine illustrations of type specimens. An excellent, clean set. Cat. BM(NH), p. 1895; Nissen ZBI, 3799N.

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