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An Essay towards a Natural History of Serpents: in two parts. I. The First exhibits a general View of Serpents, in their various Aspects.....II. The Second gives a View of most Serpents that are known...

An Essay towards a Natural History of Serpents: in two parts. I. The First exhibits a general View of Serpents, in their various Aspects.....II. The Second gives a View of most Serpents that are known...

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An Essay towards a Natural History of Serpents: in two parts. I. The First exhibits a general View of Serpents, in their various Aspects.....II. The Second gives a View of most Serpents that are known...

by Charles Owen

  • Used
  • fair
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Fair/N
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Birsay, Orkney, United Kingdom
Item Price
£825.00
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About This Item

London: Printed for the author and sold by John Gray, 1742 A fair copy of the 1st edition in later half calf binding with 7 plates. A fascinating read today, being an account of a mixture of mythical and real animals - including descriptions of dragons. The binding is in good to very good condition with gilt titles and gilt ruled lines to spine and lightly marbled boards. There is some light scuffing and wear. There is an armorial bookplate to the front pastedown with the motto 'durum sed fortissimum' and the name 'Stones' to the top. The endpapers are also newer but the paper has been chosen to match the rest of the volume. Contents: title; dedication pp iii-v; to the reader pp vi-vii; directions to binder and errata 1p; list of subscribers ix-xxiii; text pt I pp 1-50; Pt II pp 51-166 with 7 plates; Part III pp 167-240; index 12 pp. With decorative head and tailpieces. Overall the text is very clean. The title has been relaid onto matching paper and has loss at all margins; the first page of the dedication has old repair to the bottom corner; and there is similar old repair in the gutter of plate VI. There are new small edge tear repairs to margins of pp 71,73, 85 and plate VII. There is a small area of loss to the bottom edge of p69 and a tiny hole in p 85. There is staining to some areas eg circa pp 135-9 (on text); 143-185 - side edges; bottom corner margin pp 215-20. The final index leaf is toned and fragile with a couple of small brown pencil marks. The plates have some toning and occasional marking. Please enquire if you would like to see further images.

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Details

Bookseller
E C Books GB (GB)
Bookseller's Inventory #
032775
Title
An Essay towards a Natural History of Serpents: in two parts. I. The First exhibits a general View of Serpents, in their various Aspects.....II. The Second gives a View of most Serpents that are known...
Author
Charles Owen
Format/Binding
Half-Leather
Book Condition
Used - Fair
Jacket Condition
N
Quantity Available
1
Edition
1st Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Publisher
Printed for the author and sold by John Gray
Place of Publication
London
Date Published
1742
Keywords
eighteenth century natural history; serpents; dragons; charles owen;
Bookseller catalogs
HISTORY; NATURAL HISTORY;
Size
4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall

Terms of Sale

E C Books

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

About the Seller

E C Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2011
Birsay, Orkney

About E C Books

E C Books is a small online bookselling business, specialising in pre 20th century works:natural history, science, history, and travel, aiming for rarer and more unusual books. Our largest stock area is Natural History, where we have a good range of books from the 1700-1800's, many finely illustrated. Other areas include children's books, particularly late 1800's-early 1900's - again illustrated; and literature pre 1900.When you order books from us we ensure that they are properly packed to protect condition, and we always use recorded or 'signed for' postal services for more secure delivery. Please note that we have recently moved to the beautiful Orkney Islands, where we intend to open a bookshop over the next year. Because of our location we cannot guarantee 'next day' delivery but we will get your purchase to you as quickly and safely as we can.Please note that the buyer is responsible for the payment of any tax or duty on import.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Gilt
The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Plate
Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e.,...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Calf
Calf or calf hide is a common form of leather binding. Calf binding is naturally a light brown but there are ways to treat the...
Errata
Errata: aka Errata Slip A piece of paper either laid in to the book correcting errors found in the printed text after being...
New
A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
Gutter
The inside margin of a book, connecting the pages to the joints near the binding.
Bookplate
Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
Fair
is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....
Marbled boards
...

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