Weston Bell, E. The Scottish Deerhound. With notes on its Origin and Characteristics.
1st. Ed. thus Pub. Peregrine Books. 1990 pp.[x], [viii], 138 with 16 plates plus further illus., and 20-page publisher’s catalogue. Large 8vo. A total of 131 numbered copies were sold (from a total print run of just 250 copies) pre-publication to subscribers and these people are listed within. This copy is No. 25 and was purchased by E.M. Krähenbühl, Switzerland. Contents fine. Bound in green cloth with gilt decoration to front board in fine condition. A super copy.
£200.00 [ref: 67756]

Weston Bell, E. The Scottish Deerhound. With notes on its Origin and Characteristics.
1st. Ed. thus Pub. Peregrine Books. 1990 pp.[x], [viii], 138 with 16 plates plus further illus., and 20-page publisher’s catalogue. Large 8vo. A total of 131 numbered copies were sold (from a total print run of just 250 copies) pre-publication to subscribers and these people are listed within. This copy is No. 112 and was purchased by H. & F. Crawley, Nova Scotia, Canada. Four tiny spots and one small mark o/w. the contents are in fine condition. Bound in green cloth with gilt decoration to front board in nr. fine condition. A super copy.
£200.00 [ref: 66466]

Whitaker, J.I.S. The Birds of Tunisia. Being a history of the birds found in the Regency of Tunis.
1st. Ed. Pub. R.H. Porter, London. 1905 Two volume set with two photogravure frontispieces, 15 hand coloured plates by Gronvold, two further photogravure plates plus two maps. Royal 8vo. Hardback. TEG. Light spotting to ends, a very minor amount to less than a handful of text leaves o/w. contents exceptionally clean and in fine condition. Handsome contemporary half morocco leather over marbled boards by R.H. Porter in nr. fine condition. Comes with a handwritten letter (dated Jan 1896) from J.H. Gurney, author of ‘Rambles of a Naturalist in Egypt and other Countries’, in which he thanks the recipient for ‘your kind present of the young ‘Spilornis Cheela’ [Crested Serpent Eagle] on behalf of the [Norfolk and Norwich] Museum. Also comes with a loosely inserted 5-page obituary for the author Joseph I.S. Whitaker published in The Ibis (1937). Limited Edition of just 250 sets. A most pleasing set.
Highly respected Sicilian-English ornithologist J.I.S. Whitaker contributed a number of papers to The Ibis between 1894 and 1910, ‘mainly on the birds of Tunisia and Morocco, which culminated in the publication in 1905, of two handsome volumes, ‘The Birds of Tunisia.’ So accurate and up to date were his writings at that time that this will long remain the standard work on the country’ (The Ibis (1937). Stunning plates by Henrik Gronvold.
£850.00 [ref: 72171]

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White, Gilbert. The Natural History & Antiquities of Selborne & A Garden Kalendar. Edited by R. Bowdler Sharpe.
Ltd. Ed. Pub. S.T. Freemantle. 1900 Two volumes. With many plates, illustrations and vignettes. Crown 4to. Edges untrimmed as published. TEG. Bound in original stiff vellum boards - spine of volume 1 rebacked, preserving most of the original; a 4cm split to vellum at top of rear external hinge. Otherwise, bindings in vg. condition. Internal hinges in fine condition. Gilt embossed, hand coloured coat-of-arms to front boards. Very minor amount of foxing, o/w. contents in fine condition. Limited edition of 160 sets, this being no.67. Signed by Bowdler Sharpe and the artists.
This edition is beautifully illustrated by three of the leading illustrators of the period, namely J.G. Keulemans, Herbert Railton, Edmund J Sullivan. Further, this edition contains Gilbert White’s Naturalist’s Kalendar first published in 1795.
£400.00 [ref: 36807]

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White, Gilbert. The Natural History and Antiquites of Selborne. In the County of Southampton: With Engravings and an Appendix.
1st. Ed. Pub. London by T. Bensley; For B. White and Son. 1789 pp.v, 468 plus 12 page index and one-page errata. Complete with fold-out engraved frontis., engraved half-title and seven further plates (one fold-out). 4to. Hardback. Plates show some spotting and off-setting, minor paper flaw to fold-out plate. Very minor spotting elsewhere, o/w. contents exceptionally clean and fine. More recent handsome half-calf over marbled boards, with decoration and gilt lettering to spine. A very pleasing copy.
£2,500.00 [ref: 60385]

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White, Rev. G. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton. Edited by Thomas Bell.
1st. Ed. Thus Pub. van Voorst. 1877 Large paper issue. Two volume set, half-titles, 9 plates (two fold-out) plus wood engraved vignettes. Royal 8vo. Hardbacks. AEG. A trivial amount of spotting, o/w. contents in fine condition. Fine contemporary green morocco leather binding by Francis Bedford (1799-1883) spines richly decorated in gilt, French fillet borders gilt to covers, inner dentelles gilt, all in superb condition. An exceptional set.
Zoologist and dentist, Professor Thomas Bell (1792-1880) purchased Gilbert White’s home The Wakes in 1844. Bell took a very keen interest in White and he edited two volumes of the ‘Natural History and Antiquites of Selborne’ publishing it in 1877. Bell discovered rare natterjack toads under grass in the Ha-ha at The Wakes.
£1,500.00 [ref: 58318]

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Willsford, Thomas. Natures Secrets. Or, the Admirable and wonderful History Of the generation of Meteors.
1st. Ed. Pub. for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill, London. 1658 pp.[xiv], 199, [i] with full-page woodcut illus. on p.150 plus 8-pages of publisher’s adverts. Small 8vo. Hardback. Frontis. removed, some headlines just clipped. Minor worm trail, and early, light coloured mark to bottom corner c.20 leaves, o/w. contents nr. fine. Early quarter leather over marbled boards in good condition, cords exposed at front hinge, text block firm and fine.
First edition of this rare Aristotelian cosmology and explanation of comets and meteors, dedicated to Lady Stafford.
£1,500.00 [ref: 62132]

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Wood, Neville. British Song Birds; Being popular descriptions and anecdotes of the Choristers of the Groves.
1st. Ed. Pub. John W. Parker. 1836 pp.xii, 408 plus Synoptical Table, Index and 4-page Catalogue of books published by John W. Parker. Small 8vo. Hardback. Short closed tear neatly repaired to ffep., o/w. contents nr. fine. Three neat ownership inscriptions. Original decorated cloth with gilt lettering to spine, small nick to top of spine (gently sunned) o/w. in very pleasing thor. vg. condition.
Mullens and Swann wrote of Neville Wood that he ‘was an amateur possessed of considerable knowledge’ and ‘he is chiefly known as the editor of a periodical called ‘The Naturalist’’.
£300.00 [ref: 60429]

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Wood, W. (and Westwood, J.O.) Index Entomologicus; or, a Complete Illustrated Catalogue, consisting of upwards of 2000 accurately coloured figures of the Lepidopterous Insects of Great Britain.
New Rev. Ed. Pub. Willis. 1854 pp.[ii], viii, 298 plus 59 hand-coloured plates. 8vo. Hardback. TEG. With armorial bookplate of James Milnes Stansfield to front pastedown and neat signature of E.H.B. Stansfield to title page. Some scattered spotting to fore-edges of text block and to ends, only minor spotting elsewhere o/w. contents fine. Handsomely bound in contemporary green half morocco, spine richly decorated in gilt with butterfly patterns, over marbled boards lightly rubbed to extremities o/w. in thor. vg. condition. An attractive copy.
A new revised edition, with supplement by J.O. Westwood.
£350.00 [ref: 71978]

Yarrell, William. A History of British Birds.
4th. Rev. Ed. Pub. Van Voorst 1871-1885 Four volume set with 564 fine wood-engravings. Half and full-titles present, errata and 16-page Van Voorst Catalogue (dated May 1884). 8vo. Hardbacks. Occasionally cords a little stretched, o/w. contents very clean and nr. fine. Numerous period notes and insertions. Original cloth binding showing some wear and repair, in. vg. condition overall. A fascinating set of the last and best edition, revised and enlarged by Alfred Newton and Howard Saunders
This set was clearly owned by a knowledgeable, well-connected and travelled Victorian ornithologist. There are numerous highly considered observations and comments in pencil to the text. Places mentioned include the New Forest, Northumberland, the Camargue and Sardinia with dates ranging from 1852 to 1899. He knew his contemporaries and their collections, e.g. that of Edward Heale Rodd, since reference is made to it. He was knowledgeable about period works, specifically referencing John Gould's 'Birds of Great Britain' and Seebohm's 'A History of British Birds'. Period articles have been inserted: 'Yellowshanks' by [Rev.] F.O. Morris, 'Eggs of the Cuckoo and the foster parents' from The Field (1896), part of an article detailing the legality of taking eggs by County (namely Berwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland and Devonshire) and two further articles 'The Mountain Partridge' and 'The Little Bustard'.
£325.00 [ref: 60062]

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