Hummingbird, Eriocnemis isaacsoni by John Gould - 1849-61: A Monograph of the Trochilidae

First edition of this rare illustrated introduction to meteorological, geological, terrestrial and marine phenomena aimed at students.The 36 (of 37) dramatic lithographs were drawn and printed by the Strasbourg engraver Emile Lemaitre, handfinished in color and gum arabic.The phenomena include meteorological (sunrise, lightning, the Aurora Borealis, tides and rainbows), geological (mines, gold fields and volcanoes), as well as terrestrial wonders (Mount Vesuvius, Niagara Falls, the Andes mountains, Giant's Causeway, Fingal's cave, the Rhone, etc.) The plates are accompanied by explanatory text printed in blue, detailing historical and scientific information, sometimes referring to the latest inventions and events. The Arctic plate includes Sir John Franklin's 1845 doomed expedition to the North Pole, while the Gold Fields plate describes the California Gold Rush of 1848.List of plates: Sunrise - Thunderstorm - Rainbow - Earthquake - Waterspout - Moonlight - Flood - Avalanche - Simoom - Aurora Borealis… Read More

Black Sicklebill, Epimachus fastuosus (formerly great sickle-billed bird of paradise, Epimachus speciosus).Original hand-coloured lithograph by William Matthew Hart for Richard Bowdler Sharpe's Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds. London, 1891-1898.
One of the most beautiful bird illustrations ever produced from the last of the great ornithological books of the 19th century.
William Matthew Hart (1830-1908) was a bird illustrator and lithographer who worked for John Gould from 1851. He began by making the patterns for the lithographic plates for Gould's monograph on Hummingbirds, as well as working on The Birds of Great Britain with Henry Constantine Richter. By 1870 Hart had become Gould's chief artist and lithographer. After Gould's death in 1881, Hart was employed by Richard Bowdler-Sharpe of the British Museum to complete Gould's work on the Birds of New Guinea and to produce illustrations for Sharpe's great work Monograph on the Birds of… Read More

Complete set with 144 fine bird plates drawn, engraved and hand-coloured mostly by George Graves, (A few plates after Samuel Howitt and Sydenham Edwards, and engraved by Weddell and Warner.)A nice set of this study of British birds, with many songbirds, game birds, owls and hawks, divers, waders, and sea birds.Second edition of first two volumes (originally published in parts from 1811 and 1821), but first edition of the complete set (the third volume first appearing in 1821).With the title typo: British Ornithology, Being the History, with a Coloured Representation, of Every Kown [sic] Species of British Birds.George Graves (1784-1839), FLS, was an English publisher, artist, engraver and colourist who worked on botanical and ornithological works. Apart from British Birds (1811-1821), he also wrote and illustrated Ovarium Britannicum (1816), The Naturalist's Pocket Book (1817), and A Monograph on British Grasses (1822). From 1817, he oversaw the hand-colouring and publishing with William Jackson… Read More

Very good copy of William Wood's influential guidebook to conchology first published in 1815.With [2], iv, 8, lxii, 246 pages of text and 60 delicately hand-coloured engraved plates with tissue guardsPlates numbered 1-59 with one bis plate 4* illustrating 260 species of shellsWilliam Wood (1774–1857) was an English surgeon, zoologist, conchologist and entomologist. Among his works are Zoography, 1807, Index testaceologicus, 1818, Index entomologicus, 1839, British Marine Conchology with G.B. Sowerby, 1844, etc. Bound in half green morocco, gilt-decorated spine with shell tooling, marble boards, missing leather title label, a.e.g., scuffed and bumped. Plates clean and bright with delicate handcolour.

Complete set of the 53 copperplate engravings only from this seminal work of microscopy by Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680), the pioneering Dutch biologist. Swammerdam was one of the outstanding comparative anatomists of the seventeenth century. His most remarkable work was in the field of insect anatomy, which he undertook in order to disprove Aristotle's claims that insects lack internal anatomy, develop by metamorphosis and arise from spontaneous generation. By refining his techniques of micro-dissection and injection, Swammerdam was able to illustrate for the first time the complex internal structures of insects, including their reproductive organs.These observations are "indubitably the foundation of our modern knowledge of the structure, metamorphosis and classification of insects" (Cole, p. 285).Biblia naturae, Swammerdam's major work, was published 57 years after his death by Herman Boerhaave, who assembled it from unpublished manuscript materials integrated with a slightly revised version of… Read More