.jpg?w=1)
Details
ABBOT, John (1751-1839) and Sir James Edward SMITH (1759-1828). The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, London: T. Bensley for J. Edwards, Cadell and Davies, and J. White, 1797.
2 volumes, 2° (408 x 300mm). 104 hand-coloured engraved plates by John Harris after Abbot, some heightened with gum-arabic. Parallel text in English and French, with index also in Latin. (First title a little soiled, faint offsetting, occasional light spotting or browning of plates, plate 6 with short tear at margin, about eight plates trimmed along fore-margin.) Early 19th-century dark green straight-grained morocco gilt, covers with double panel in gilt and blind enclosing the Botfield arms, spines gilt lettered and decorated with panels of massed small tools, gilt edges (extremities a little rubbed). Provenance: '25/4/0 unbound' (publication price pencilled on front free endpaper and also purchase price of '8.18.6').
A HANDSOME COPY WITH WIDE MARGINS AND FINE COLOURING. This is the only published work by John Abbot, an 'assiduous collector and an admirable draftsman of insects.' Born in Turnham Green, in 1751, Abbot went to Virginia in 1773, then travelled south to Georgia in 1775, where he spent much of his long life compiling a scientific record of local birds and insects. To publish in London the American entomologist needed the co-operation of Sir James Smith, co-founder and first president of the Linnean Society. Smith, in the preface, praises him highly as the first author 'since the celebrated, though not very accurate, Merian,' to illustrate and describe the lepidoptera of the American continent scientifically, including both representations of the caterpillars and 'the plants on which each insect chiefly feeds.' Arnold Arboretum p. 27; Nissen ZBI 2; Dunthorne 287; Sabin 25. (2)
2 volumes, 2° (408 x 300mm). 104 hand-coloured engraved plates by John Harris after Abbot, some heightened with gum-arabic. Parallel text in English and French, with index also in Latin. (First title a little soiled, faint offsetting, occasional light spotting or browning of plates, plate 6 with short tear at margin, about eight plates trimmed along fore-margin.) Early 19th-century dark green straight-grained morocco gilt, covers with double panel in gilt and blind enclosing the Botfield arms, spines gilt lettered and decorated with panels of massed small tools, gilt edges (extremities a little rubbed). Provenance: '25/4/0 unbound' (publication price pencilled on front free endpaper and also purchase price of '8.18.6').
A HANDSOME COPY WITH WIDE MARGINS AND FINE COLOURING. This is the only published work by John Abbot, an 'assiduous collector and an admirable draftsman of insects.' Born in Turnham Green, in 1751, Abbot went to Virginia in 1773, then travelled south to Georgia in 1775, where he spent much of his long life compiling a scientific record of local birds and insects. To publish in London the American entomologist needed the co-operation of Sir James Smith, co-founder and first president of the Linnean Society. Smith, in the preface, praises him highly as the first author 'since the celebrated, though not very accurate, Merian,' to illustrate and describe the lepidoptera of the American continent scientifically, including both representations of the caterpillars and 'the plants on which each insect chiefly feeds.' Arnold Arboretum p. 27; Nissen ZBI 2; Dunthorne 287; Sabin 25. (2)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Sale room notice
Please note that this copy is a later issue, with many of the plates bearing watermarks of 1821 or 1822.