Natural History

First edition 1st printing, Very Good book with mild rubbing on boards, light edge wear, slight rubbing on spine, soft spine ends, and with a touch of sun fade along edges of boards. In a Good to Very Good, price-clipped, dust jacket that has edge wear, small chips, several small closed tears, color loss along edges and folds, has an internal tape reinforcement at top of spine. Colors remain vibrant and lettering on spine is not faded as is often the case.

Paris,: J. Barbou,, 1780.. [iv, blank], [iv, half-title & title], xxxi, 319, [i, publisher's catalogue], [ii, blank] pp. Small 8vo (9,5 x 16 cm.). A charming contemporary binding: full marbled calf, remnants of gilt rullers on sides, spine in compartments gilt decorated, red morocco title-label, gilt dotted ruller at the outer and inner edges of the sides, gilt edges. With a fine frontispiece engraved by B.J. Prévost, Bardou's printer's mark op title, several fine engraved headings and footers Very finely printed by Bardou, one of the limited issues of his series "Collections d'Auteurs Latin" printed on "Papier Bleuté". A famous neo-Latin poem in the style of Virgil's "Georgica". First published at Paris in 1665, and followed by many later edition and translations. The present edition is concluded by Brotier's (1732-1789) remarks on Rapin's poem and a history of the classical garden.

London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1897. Volumes 11-12 (in one vol, half roan, a bit worn and scuffed, contents slightly loose); Volumes 22 - 30, (in an attractive contemporary half calf and marbled boards, slightly marked, a little foxing internally, but overall very clean and tight). A few plain litho plates and four fine coloured plates - of the Bornean butterfly Ornithoptera trojana, forms of Colias edusa, aberrations in the Genus Vanessa, varieties of Triphaena comes-orbona, and one to accompany Gosse's article on Attacus atlas. [1878 - 1879; 1888 - 1897]. SCARCE. {A heavy set - extra postage will be required}. Half-Leather. Very Good.

LONDON FOR MILLAR, LAW AND CATER AND FOR WILSON, SPENCE AND MAWMAN, YORK, 1797. A NEW (AND SCARCE) EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES. MODERN GREEN CLOTH BINDINGS, VERY FRESH AND TIGHT. WITH 100 ENGRAVINGS. VOL 1, 415 pp, 4 PLATES. VOL2. 412 pp, 53 PLATES (INCLUDING ONE THAT SHOULD BE IN VOL. 1). VOL 3, 424 pp, 29 PLATES. VOL. 4, 327 pp +EXTENSIVE INDEX, 13 PLATES. OCCASIONAL ANNOTATIONS BY A NEAT CONTEMPORARY HAND, BUT INTERNALLY CLEAN.

At the West-End of St Paul's, London: W. Innys & R. Manby, 1738. Third edition, with amendments. Small octavo, pp xiv, 376, illustrated with 19 engraved plates, fore-edge a little thumbed but otherwise very clean and crisp internally, marbled endpapers, contemporary full polished calf, a thin decorated gilt line around the borders, a little marked and worn, the spine gilt decorated with raised bands, lacking the top 25mm of the spine, and lacking small portions at the top of each joint, the joints cracking slightly. still an attractive copy. [In Vegetable Staticks, Hales studied transpiration - the loss of water from the leaves of plants. He estimated the surface area of the leaves of the plant and the length and surface area of the roots. This allowed Hales to compare the calculated influx of water into the plant with the amount of water leaving the plant by transpiration through the leaves. He also measured 'the force of the sap' or root pressure. Hales commented that "plants… Read More

London: Nisbet & Co. Ltd., 1920. Limited Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Edmund Dulac. A book on the subject of the Pearl (unsurprisingly) illustrated with 10 coloured plates by Edmund Dulac. Quarter bound with grey boards and white cloth spine, TEG. The top board is decorated with a maritime theme of shells and waves. Limited to 675 copies this copy is, internally, in very good condition with boards that are a trifle scuffed with a rubbed spine (see photos). Two pages have neat pencil annotations. Uncommon.

Canterbury, London & Oxford: J. & J. Merrill; T. Cadell, B. White, G. & T. Wilkie; J. & J. Fletcher & D. Prince, 1785. First edition, 1785, complete with the three supplements of 1786, 1788 & 1793. Illustrated with seven engraved plates by James Sowerby (including one folding), octavo, pp (20), 490; 40; 36; 43, endpapers marked, sound internally but with some foxing and age-toning (see illustration), contemporary half calf and marbled boards, rubbed, an early rebacking has strengthened the front joint, the old spine laid down, the rear joint cracking a little, the old spine now cracking slightly and brittle. Blanche Henrey 1256 - 1259. A work of many years scholarship including the revisions which Thomas Martyn had undertaken for his Plantae Cantabrigienses but which he ultimately gifted to Relhan. The author received much help from the amateur botanist James Dickson, which contributed immensely to the value of the book as a record of the mosses, fungi and algae of the… Read More

Stationer's Court, Ludgate Street: B. & R. Crosby & Co., 1814. Second edition, "considerably enlarged and improved." With an engraved portrait frontispiece, and with 258 engravings of plants drawn by Henderson and engraved by Thomas Bewick, thick octavo, pp xxviii, 902, [13], {lacking one leaf of the index and with several leaves neatly repaired}, a small adhesion spot to the frontispiece and the title page has led to slight loss of surface to both, generally clean and tight throughout, twentieth century full calf, lined to the margins, decorated spine, slight scuff damage to the uppoer cover otherwise just generally very slightly rubbed. [Before the new binding, the book had obviously been dropped on its upper corner and all pages are bruised and creased - see illustration. ]. Second edition. Full-Leather. Good. Illus. by Thomas Bewick. Henderson. .

Portland: Timber Press [1990 - 2000]. Five volumes - Numbers II, III, IV, V & VI. Well illustrated, large octavo, very clean internally. The dustwrapper of Volume 2 is slightly faded and very slightly rubbed; the dustwrapper of Volume 4 is slightly worn and a little more faded. Otherwise very bright copies. [Heavy set - extra postage may be required. ]. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Very Slightly Worn.

Bonn: Scienta Bonnensis, 2010. Very well illustrated with well over 1,000 colour photographs, thick octavo, pp 861, very clean internally, pictorial boards, very slightly bruised, the spine faded, otherwise a very good copy. Text in E nglish and Dari throughout. VERY SCARCE. . First Edition. Boards. Very Good.

London: The Hand & Flower Press, 1949. Illustrated with twenty delightful etched plates, each one signed in pencil by Betty Shaw-Lawrence, small quarto, pp 90, (2), a decorated title page engraved by Alfred Richard Lane, top edge gilt, the other edges untrimmed, half-morocco and boards, a slight fading to the spine, otherwise a very good copy. Limited edition of 260 copies numbered and signed, printed at the Ditchling Press - this one being number 12. [From the library of the Kew botanist Vicki Matthews. with her bookplate in her married name - Victoria and Brinsley Burbidge. Also with the earlier bookplate of Rae Wilson, designed by J. Younger.]. First Edition. Half-Leather. Very Good. Illus. by Betty Shaw-Lawrence.

London: Thomas Kelly, 1828. Two volumes, (1828 - 1830). Thick octavo, an engraved frontispiece, an extra engraved title page, thirty plain engraved plates, pp xxviii, 1120, 142 + directions to the binder and an advertisement leaf (a further advertisement page is placed after the second title page), some foxing and age-toning throughout, a bookseller's small label on each front endpaper (Kempson - Chertsey), later brown half calf and green cloth, very slightly worn. a little faded, the cloth a little marked in the second volume. [One of the most important works of late Georgian horticulture. McIntosh made important contributions to the designs of Taymouth Castle, Stratton Park, Pengethley, Claremont, Laeken and Dalkeith. He never set out to emulate such figures as Lancelot Brown or Humphry Repton, but remained at the cutting edge of contemporary horticultural techniques about which he wrote extensively; perhaps his greatest area of expertise being that of hot-house design and heating, seen to… Read More

Geneva: J.J. Paschoud, 1811. Two volumes bound in one, octavo, pp xxii, 361; 326,(i), the hinge at the first title page cracking but still firm and safe, lacking the lower corners of the the three index leaves and the corrigenda (slight loss of text), otherwise extremely clean and tight internally, original pink paper-covered boards, a contemporaru cloth spine which is splitting a little on the upper joint and rather dry. SCARCE. [From the library of C.E. Hubbard, the foremost grass taxonomist of the twentieth century, and with his signature and stamp on the front endpaper. Also with an earlier unidentified signature on the title page.]. First Edition. Quarter leather. Good.

Edinburgh: Printed for Private Circulation, 1901. Illustrated with three plates, large octavo, pp xiv, (ii), 203, the top edge gilt, the other two edges age-toned, a few slight thumb/reading creases, a few neat pencil notes in the margins, the page listing the illustrations is foxed, the endpapers age-toned, the name of the original owner on the presentation page has been gemtly removed, otherwise very clean internally, blue cloth with only very slight signs of use. [The Oates-Selborne copy, with the bookplate of Robert Washington Oates.]. VERY SCARCE.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good.

London: Journal of Horticulture Office, 1884. Very thick octavo, pp xxxx, 780, just very slightly used internally, green cloth with bevelled edges, a little rubbed and worn, neatly recased with the original spine laid down, new yellow endpapers. A good sound copy. . Fifth edition. Cloth. Good.