Search Results: NATURAL HISTORY from Aardvark Rare Books

Cleveland, Ohio: The Bird Research Foundation, 1951. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Good. Quarto, 10.25 in. x 7.75 in., pp. xvi, [2], 723, [2]. Presentation copy with a sweet inscription and signature of the author, dated November 10, 1951, to half title. Author lists this book as "Copy number 32". Book is presented to "Doctor Castle." Illustrated with sixty-two full-page paintings, each with captioned, textured tissue-guard, and pen sketches and photographs. Green morocco with double frame stamped in blind and gilt title and roadrunner to cover. Gilt title and cactus to spine. Light rubbing to extremities. Front endpapers display photograph of desert/cactus scene; rear endpaper are map of SE Arizona. 20-cent USPS stamp showing a painting of cactus wren to front pastedown. Rubbing to edges of dustjacket with small closed tears and creases. Large chips to top of dustjacket spine and rear left corner of dustjacket; smaller chips to bottom of dustjacket's spine and corners. Protected in… Read More

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1931. First Edition (NAP). Hardcover. Very Good. Quarto. Purple cloth-covered boards, ruled in blind, with gilt vignette depicting a sea creature to front board. Gilt lettering to spine. Fading especially to spine. Previous owner's bookplate to front free endpaper. Endpapers show squids. Previous owner's inscription (parents to their daughter, Christmas, 1933) to free endpaper. Lovely color frontis. "...A popular reference book and guide describing the lower seashore animals of the Atlantic coast of North America. Illustrated by the author. All measurements in metric. Many diagrams and black and white photographs throughout. 461 pp. Chapters on Seashore Life; Collecting; Phyla Protozoa; Porifera; Coelenterata; Vermes; Molluscoidea; Annelida; Echinodermata; Arthropoda; Mollusca; Chordata. Followed by a Bibliography, Glossary and Index.

Washington DC: National Geographic Society, 1939. Hardcover. Very Good Plus in Good Plus dustjackets. Quartos. Green buckram boards, with bright gilt lettering to boards and spines. Beige-olive dustjackets (quite sunned) with black lettering. With 950 Color Portraits by Major Allan Brooks. Authoritative and handsome set, loaded with photographs and color portraits. For the serious bird enthusiast -- well beyond the basic guide books which tell one what the birds look like, where they live, and what they eat, these were the cornerstone set for those who really wanted to delve deeper in specifics of habitat, behavior, etc.

London, England: Printed for Benj. White, 1777. Leather-bound. Very Good Plus. Thomas Pennant. Octavo. Dark brown full diced calf (russia), bordered by blind stamped interlocking device. Rebacked in matching calf, ruled in gilt. Contrasting spine label (gilt on black). Marbled edges. Crabs, Lobsters, Worms, Shells. 93 plates. Very tight, pages unmarred, very clean. Fascinating little-before known notes about Lobsters, for instance: "Lobsters fear thunder; and are apt to cast their claws on a great clap. I am told they will do the same on firing a great gun; and that when men of war meet on a lobster boat, a jocular threat is used, That, if the master does not sell them good lobsters, they will salute him...Lobsters change their crust annually. Previous to their putting off their old one, they appear sick, languid, and restless; They totally acquire a new coat in a few days; but during the time that they remain defenceless they seem some very lonely place, for fear of being attacked and devoured by… Read More

London, England: George Routledge and Sons, 1880. Hardcover. GOOD. E. Smith T.W. Wood W.S. Coleman. Duodecimo. 7 1/2 in. x 5 in. Publisher's decorative, beveled hunter-green cloth boards. Black lines, designs stamped all-round. Spine and front board with gilt-stamped butterfly, fern stems, and lettering. Rubbing to extremities. Front, rear hinges cracked, text-block split between pp. 96 and 97. Dealer stamp inside rear flap. Foxing to front endpapers, scant thereafter. Bookseller's penciled note, previous owner's penned inscription, penned gift inscription. Twelve chromolithograph plates, each of multiple moth species, plentiful additional illustrations in text in black-and-white, some hand-colored. Plate, subject and "detail cuts" indexes at rear. Prelims + 2-186 [1] pp. Neither edition nor publication date stated, but likely circa 1880s; printed in Whitefriars by Bradbury, Agnew & Co. Gift inscription dated 1892, receipt from 1985 says book is "over 100 years old." Church Parson John George Wood… Read More

Paris, France: P. Pourrat Freres, 1840. Second Edition. Hardcover. VERY GOOD PLUS. Deuxieme EditionRevue, corrigee et augmentee par L'auteur --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: Le topic et contenu de ce livre est Oiseaux! Même si la page de titre indique "HUMAINES ET COURSES Mammifères", tel est le titre du tome I. Ce livre est particulièrement Volume II SEULEMENT et s'inquiète dans son intégralité avec des oiseaux. NOTE: The topic and content of the book is Birds! Second Edition, Reviewed, corrected and expanded by the author. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEMI-reliure cuir (SPINE), housses en cuir et MARBRURE pages de , garde, bord marbrure, fanée; binding nouveau probable de la "Société de Lecture de Dijon», parce que leur marque encrée apparaît sur la page de titre, et une title en doré… Read More

Bungay, Suffolk, England: C. Brightly and Co. and T. Kinnersly, 1812. Leather-bound. Very Good. 8vo. 8 3/8 in. x 5 in. Contemporary tree calf, double-ruled in gilt chain pattern. Contrasting spine label - six compartments. Owner name Samuel S. Parkinson to front free endpaper. Note to front pastedown: "Collated May 30, 1902), and double initialed. FIFTY-FOUR ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL COLORED PLATES. 376 pp. Tight, clean copy of a 110+ year-old book, ready for daily use! "...It is his [the author's] opinion that the true end of science is use; and in this view, the present work has been undertaken.

Corvallis, Oregon: Chimtimini Press, 2000. First Edition. Softcover. Very Good. Trade paperback, 6 x 9 in., pp. x + 131. 1/2 inch white scratch to rear cover. Light edge-wear to bottom; light thumbing to lower right corner. Previous owner's name in felt marker to top-edge. Pages are bright and clean.

London: Robinson and Dilly, 1791. Second Edition. Leather_bound. Good Plus. Thomas Bewick. x,483 pages. Title vignette and numerous woodcuts throughout the text. Leather spine, original boards, black spine label. Large octavo. Chafing to spine, spine label cracked and chipped, corners bumped. Beautiful navy, plum and cream marbled endpapers, light foxing throughout. Binding sound. The second edition was much more detailed. Thomas Bewick [1754-1828] was a printmaker and naturalist who revived the art of wood engraving as a major printing technique.

Rosamund, CA: Bill Huth Publishers, 2009. Second Printing. Hardcover. Near fine. Volume I only. Octavo, 8 in. x 5.2 in., pp. xix, [1], 374, [3] (advertising). Illustrated with frontispiece, two additional full-page plates, and seven figures. Forest green boards with elaborate frame stamped in blind to front and back. Gilt title to spine. Originally published in 1899, The History of Creation was the first book of its kind to apply a doctrine to the whole range of organic morphology and make use of the effect Darwin had on biological sciences during the 19th century. Haeckel looks at Darwin's reform of Descent Theory and its establishment through the doctrine of selection. He introduces Descent Theory into the systematic classification of animals and plants and finds a "natural system" on the basis of genealogy - that is, to construct hypothetical pedigrees for the various species of organisms. The book will be of interest to those studying natural history and the origins of modern scientific thought,… Read More

London, England: A. Fullarton and Co, 1853. Hardcover. Very Good. Matching set of two: Large Octavos, 10.5 in. x 6.6 in. Illustrated with forty-four full-page hand-colored plates. Green half calf with blind tooling over textured green cloth boards. Gilt title to red panel, and five-raised bands bordered by gilt bars to spines. Marbled edges. Light rubbing to extremities, and sunning to spines. Some discoloration to cloth boards. Previous owner's bookplate to front pastedowns. Hinges and spines tight. Color plates are bright and sharp. Volume I: pp. liv, 536, [68] (Seventeen color plates). Light bubbling to rear board. Volume II: pp. 541. Twenty-seven color plates interspersed. Oliver Goldsmith, one of the most popular 18th century English writers, lived a fascinating life of contradictions, between his unquestionable brilliance and self-destructive tendencies. Many details of Goldsmith's life are not precisely known, partially because he seems to have frequently lied to his official biographer,… Read More

London, England: Blackie and Son, 1868. Revised Edition, With Supplement. Hardcover. Very Good. Large octavo, 7 x 9.8 in., pp. xvi + 734. Illustrated with 43 steel engraved color and black and white plates including title, and numerous wood engravings; Two of the 45 steel-engraved plates (#5 and 36) are missing. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Linnaeus, with tissue guard. Dark half-calf over brown cloth boards. Gilt title with decoration to five raised bands to spine. Marbled edges. Rubbing to extremities. Several small chips to leather. Very light foxing to endpapers and occasional pages. Spine is tight. The steel and wood engravings in this edition are stunning: bright and sharp.

Lipsiae, F. Hofmeister, 1867. Hardcover. Very Good Plus. Quarto, 8.5 x 11.2 in. Pagination: First plate has "1" at top left, and "MMLII" (2052) at top right; plates progress to "220" and "MMCCLXXI" (2271). 220 hand-colored plates of orchids, alongside numbered ink sketches of each plant's specific parts. No half-title, title, or publisher's page; title is indicated only on spine. Plates marked "Rchb.fil.del" at bottom left, and "Berthold sc.", "Werner sc." or "Scherell sc." on bottom right. Modern half-calf over contemporary marbled boards. Seven gilt bands and gilt title to rebacked spine. Rubbing to board edges. Plain endpapers. Hinges reinforced with green cloth library tape. Two inch closed tear at tape edge to front free endpaper. Nickel-sized round stain in upper right corner of first plate. Plates are sharp and bright. {Stafleu & Cowan 8885 }. Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Dresden, 3 January 1823 - Hamburg, 6 May 1889) was a botanist and the foremost German orchidologist of the 19th century.… Read More

London, England: W. Tweedie, 1869. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Quarto, 10.4 in. x 7.2 in., pp. viii, 3-486. Illuatrated with hundreds of life-size black and white woodcut drawings of moths and caterpillars. Red cloth beveled boards with elaborate frame stamped in black to front and in blind to back, and five gilt moths and title to front. Black title with gilt moth and black and gilt design to spine. All edges gilt. Rubbing to extremities. Corners nudged and showing. Hinges just showing, but spine strong. Chips to top/bottom of spine; darkening to spine. Spring green endpapers. LIght occasional spotting throughout. Pencil scribble to rear flyleaf.

London, England: B. and J. White at Horace's Head, Fleet-Street, 1796. Fifth Edition. Leather-bound. Good Plus. Small quarto, Contemporary mottled calf measuring 8 1/2" x 5 3/8". Front and rear boards each double-ruled in gilt with a continuous gilt device (appearing like tiny life preservers strung upon a striped rope), and a contrasting, gilt-on-black title label, perhaps a replacement (?). Inner dentelles surrounding the front and rear pastedown endpapers. Endpapers decorated with one of the loveliest marbling we've ever seen -- a three-color tree design branching over thestone marble design, which itself looks more like an electronic microscopic view of tree cells. Previous owner's name Mary ______, with the date of 1800 below half-title. Fold-out chart ("The Outlines of Linnaeus's System of Vegetables"Rear board separating but still held quite firmly by its three cords. Blemish to front endpaper. Some very modest penciled "x" marks and several handwritten notations to margins.Some unobtrusive… Read More

London: John Murray, 1887. Second Edition. Hardcover. Good Plus. Complete set in three volumes. Frontis of Darwin to each volume, 2 plates. ix,539,396,418 pages, Index. Gren cloth, large octavos with titles in gilt. Volume I has contemporary inscription dated 1887. Some foxing to endpapers, notes in pencil to rear endpaper of each volume, a few pages have some minor pencilling, otherwise clean. Corners bumped, spines show fading, light edgewear with usual light wear to top and bottom of spines, bindings tight.

Ballarat, Australia: Polwarth Sheep Breeders' Association of Australia, 1982. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Very Good. Octavo, 8.8 in. x 5.6 in., pp. 131. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Black cloth boards with gilt title to spine. Lengthy inscription on front free endpaper. Light rubbing to edges of dustjacket, with a couple short closed tears near spine. Protected in mylar. From the dustjacket: "It is not only the history of this Australian sheep, but also the story of the men who had the foresight and knowledge to standardize the Breed, and also those men who followed on to bring the Polwarth to the great sheep it is now."

New York: Bloomsbury, 2004. First U.S. Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine / Near Fine. Octavo, 9.5 in. x 6.25 in., pp. 242. Signed on the title page by the author. Black cloth boards with gilt title to spine. Untrimmed fore-edge. Dustjacket protected in mylar. Robert Sullivan (1963 - ) is a contributing editor to Vogue and a frequent contributor to the New Yorker. He lives in New York.

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927. FIRST EDITION (NAP). Hardcover. Very Good. Octavo, 9.5 in. x 6.3 in., pp. xiv, [2], 659. Illustrated with eleven color plates and many black and white photos and ink drawings. With glossary, index, and bibliography. Light green cloth boards and embossed frame in blind, title in dark green, and beautiful bright gilt embossed design of a seashell to front. Gilt title and dark green seashell to spine. Light shelf-wear. Bottom corners slightly nudged. Inscription on front pastedown (see comments), and additional previous owner's signature to front free endpaper. Spine and hinges are tight. Association copy signed "From the author" to J. Wayland Vaughan (1870 - 1952), a noted American geographer and oceanographer.

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935. Reprint. Hardcover. Very Good Plus / Good Plus. Octavo, 9.5 in. x 6.3 in., pp. xiv, [2], 659. Illustrated with tissue-guarded frontis and ten additional color plates, and many black and white photos and ink drawings. With glossary, index, and bibliography. Light green cloth boards and embossed frame in blind, title in dark green, and beautiful bright gilt embossed design of a seashell to front. Gilt title and dark green seashell to spine. Very light shelf-wear. Sunning to dustjacket, turning the original green to tan. LIght rubbing to dustjacket edges with a couple small chips. Moisture stain to top of dustjacket spine. Price clipped. Originally published in 1927. Rare to find in its dustjacket!