BELL, Charles. Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery, trepan, hernia, amputation, aneurism, and lithotomy, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees [etc.], 1821, oblong 2° (272 x 380mm.), FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, 20 etched plates by Thomas Landseer after Bell, most hand-coloured, wood-engraved illustration to recto of final leaf (title and final leaf detached, short marginal tear to title and B2, slight offsetting from illustration to final leaf, marginal thumb-soiling to plates and text, occasional spotting), contemporary morocco-backed cloth (covers detached, stitching loose). [GM 5588: "one of the most dramatically and beautifully illustrated works in the entire literature of surgery"; Waller 857; Wellcome II, p. 136]

Details

BELL, Charles. Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery, trepan, hernia, amputation, aneurism, and lithotomy, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees [etc.], 1821, oblong 2° (272 x 380mm.), FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, 20 etched plates by Thomas Landseer after Bell, most hand-coloured, wood-engraved illustration to recto of final leaf (title and final leaf detached, short marginal tear to title and B2, slight offsetting from illustration to final leaf, marginal thumb-soiling to plates and text, occasional spotting), contemporary morocco-backed cloth (covers detached, stitching loose). [GM 5588: "one of the most dramatically and beautifully illustrated works in the entire literature of surgery"; Waller 857; Wellcome II, p. 136]

Lot Essay

The plates were prepared by Thomas Landseer from drawings of operations Bell had made over the previous twenty years.

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