Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$384.80 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: (2), viii, (9-)166, (4), 51 plates. . HB. 4to, half leather, marbled boards, corners bumped + worn, spine heavily scuffed. Engraved title page, plain anatomical plate, 50 engraved plates (only one has been hand-coloured). Lacks engraved frontis. Signature to endpaper of Rosa Emily Allen (1823-1871), Cross House Ilminster, daughter of the headmaster of a local school, Rev. John Allen (1799-1855). 2nd edition. Of the 50 plates of insects in the Exposition seven are of dragonflies.
Seller: PEMBERLEY NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS BA, ABA, Iver, United Kingdom
Price: US$1999.00 + shipping
Description: Tall uncut Second Edition (First Issue, with hand-colored allegorical frontispiece of sylvan scene with various insects and animals at foot of pedestal holding statue of Ceres and catchword on p. 40 corrected) of this classic of eighteenth-century entomology. Royal 4to (317 x 240mm): [2],viii,9-166,[4]pp, complete with 50 delicately hand-coloured plates, depicting more than 500 individual moths, dragonflies, damselflies, bees, wasps, and other insects drawn from life, engraved, and colored by Moses Harris; engraved calligraphic title page, and uncolored engraved plate with numbered parts of insects keyed to explanations in the Preface. Text in English and French in double columns. Contemporary quarter green calf, original flat spine (very skillfully relaid) in six compartment divided by gilt bands, title direct to second compartment in gilt, marbled boards. Previous owner 's name (Catherine Sharpe) to top of title page. Scattered spotting to pages and plates, lightly and evenly toned, p. 29 with neatly repaired tear, but an excellent unsophisticated copy, entirely uncut, in handsome period binding. Lisney 242. Nissen ZB1838. Agassiz III, p. 191. Freeman 1557. British Bee Books 129. First published in 1780 (but dated 1776), many copies of which include the color wheel plate. But according to Lisney, none "of the ideal copies which I have examined . . . contains the colour chart which, in my opinion, only occurs in made-up copies of this edition." Harris, a gifted, self-taught entomologist, was considered "the best painter and engraver of insects of his day." (Quaritch, 2557) His most famous work, The Aurelian, was published in 1766, followed by English Lepidoptera in 1775. An Exposition was the first book to provide scientific descriptions and accurate illustrations of several species of dragonfly and damselfly. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
Seller: Fine Editions Ltd, Lancaster, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$4850.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 4to (11 4/8 x 9 inches): text in English and French; engraved title-page in English; viii, [9]-166, [4] pages; engraved "Scheme of Colours" and 50 plates of insects with original hand-color, one uncolored plate (some plates browned). Bound in contemporary mottled calf, each board elaborately decorated with roll tool border of Greek key and floral motifs in gilt, the spine gilt ruled in six compartment, green morocco lettering piece in the second compartment, the others decorated with fine gilt tools, all edges gilt (a little rubbed). PROVENANCE: engraved armorial bookplates of John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke (1750-1827) and of Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh (1916-1955), his sale Sotheby's 15 December 1999, lot 315. Second edition, first published in parts between 1776 and 1780. The exquisite plates depict over 500 individual insects. Harris was the "first to draw attention to the importance of wing neuration in the classification of lepidoptera and upon this principle he arranged the species in his published works, illustrating them in color to a high degree of accuracy" (Lisney 242). An accurate artist, "who drew, engraved, and coloured all his own works; he was also a miniature painter of some renown. Proposals (1758) for the publication of his magnum opus, The Aurelian, or, Natural History of English Insects, included various addresses in London for the receipt of subscriptions, but his residence at that time is unrecorded; however, in 1768 he was known to be living in Deptford, near Greenwich. He moved shortly afterwards to Crayford, Kent, to the irritation of his patron and fellow entomologist Dru Drury, who in 1770 pleaded with him to move closer to London. Publication of The Aurelian commenced in December 1758. Finally completed in 1766, it was issued in parts, of which only parts 1 to 4 have been separately located. There were forty-one plates, and four more (the 'Supplement') were added in the second issue (ca. 1773). Later editions, with issues of various dates and contents, were dated 1778, 1794, and 1840 (ed. J. O. Westwood). In 1986 the first edition was reproduced with a new introduction and commentaries. "Contemporary with production of The Aurelian Harris published the pioneering Natural System of Colours (1766), which Thomas Martyn edited in 1811; a facsimile of the extremely rare original edition was published in America in 1963. A scarce and scientifically important treatise followed (c. 1767), entitled An Essay Precedeing a Supplement to The Aurelian: it established a classification of Lepidoptera based on wing venation and included eight coloured engraved plates. This was incorporated in Exposition of English Insects (dated 1776, but not published until 1780), considered by many Harris's principal scientific work. It was of particular value to dipterists, and notable also for the author's self-portrait at the age of forty-nine (dated 1780). There was also an issue of 1781, a second edition in 1782, and finally an issue of 1786 (Robert Mays for DNB). REFERENCES: Nissen ZBI 1838.
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.