Donovan, Edward. The Natural History of British Insects. Volume 9 & 10.
Pub. for the Author and for F. and C. Rivington. 1800-1801 Two volumes bound as one. Royal 8vo. With title-pages for both volumes & 60 copper-engraved plates, 54 being hand-coloured. Minor scattered foxing, largely confined to tissue guards, o/w. contents very clean & in fine condition. All edges of text block marbled. Original half-red leather over marbled boards rubbed in places. Binding firm and in very good condition. With bookplate of “Thomas Johnston, ‘Nunquam non paratus’” to front paste-down.
Volumes 9 and 10 bound here as a single volume, comprising Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Aptera and Vorticella.
£395.00 [ref: 51982]

view all images for this item

Edwards, James. The Hemiptera-Homoptera (Cicadina and Psyllina).
Pub. Reeve. 1896 pp.xii, 271 with 2 uncoloured and 28 hand-coloured plates. Binding stretched at plate 9 but still tight. Bound in half morocco with marbled boards with some wear to top of spine. All plates clean except plate 30 has a very few faint spots of foxing. This is the scarce large paper coloured edition.
£225.00 [ref: 40368]

view all images for this item

Kirby, William and Spence, William An Introduction to Entomology: Or elements of the Natural History of Insects: with Plates.
3rd. Ed. Pub. Longman et al. 1818-1826 Four volume set with two portrait frontis., six hand-coloured plates, 24 b/w. plates and fold-out table. 8vo. Hardbacks. Occasional spotting to text, o/w. fine. Scattered spotting to some b/w. plates, less so to hand-col. plates. Vol. I bound in brown half-calf over marbled boards, Vols. II to IV in black half-calf over cloth boards (bound by J.D. Smith, Deptford Bridge), all in good to vg. condition.
£225.00 [ref: 62681]

view all images for this item

Macleay, William S. Horae Entomologicae: or Essays on the Annulose Animals. Vol. I., Part I and II.
1st. Ed. Printed for S. Bagster. 1819-1821 Bound in two volumes (all published) with three copper-engraved plates. 8vo. Hardback. With dedication from George Macleay (William’s brother) dated 1880 to verso of title-page in Vol. II (which also contains bookplate of Univ. of Aberdeen). Some spotting and quite minor amount of marking, o/w. contents fine. Early paper covered boards showing wear, more recently protected in clear (removable) plastic covers. Scarce.
Part I comprises ‘General Observations on the Geography, Manners and Natural Affinities of the Insects which compose the Genus Scarabaeus of Linnaeus; to which are added a few incidental Remarks on the Genera Lucanus and Hister of the same Author.’. Part II comprises ‘An attempt to ascertain the rank and situation which the celebrated Egyptian insect, Scarbaeus sacer, holds among organized beings.’. Macleay was a promoter of the Circular of Quinarian system of classification. Charles Darwin, who got to know Macleay after he returned from the Beagle voyage, tried to fit Quinarian ideas into his evolutionary ideas up to around 1845.
£395.00 [ref: 64615]

view all images for this item

Moffett, Thomas. [Moffat, Mouffet or Muffet]. Insectorum sive minimorum Animalium Theatrum. Olim ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque Pennio inchoatum.
1st. Ed. 1st. Iss. Pub. London. 1634 pp.[xx], 326, [iv] with woodcuts throughout the text, last 4 leaves with woodcut illus. Royal 4to. Hardback. Title page professionally reinforced at gutter, lightly chipped to fore-edge. Overall, contents in nr. fine condition. Contemporary full-calf boards in thoroughly vg. condition, more recent spine in fine condition. A very pleasing copy indeed. One of three variant imprints, Lisney identifies this variant as the first issue given the appearance of ‘apud Benjam, Allen’ on the title page. Lisney 3, British Bee Books 25.
A very significant work indeed. A first edition, first issue, copy of the first book about insects published in Britain. Partly compiled from the writings of Edward Wotton, Conrad Gesner and Gesner's assistant Thomas Penny, Moffett's copiously illustrated treatise remained the ‘standard work’ on insects until the early 1700s.
£8,750.00 [ref: 57767]

view all images for this item

Morris, Rev. F.O. A History of British Moths.
6th. Ed. Pub. John C.Nimmo. 1903 Four volume set with 132 hand-coloured plates. 4to. Hardbacks. Minor spotting, one short closed marginal tear, o/w. contents fine. Parts uncut. Original green cloth boards with gilt moth emblem to front cover and gilt lettering to spine, all in vg. to thor. vg. condition.
£275.00 [ref: 60743]

view all images for this item

Rennie, James. A Conspectus of the Butterflies and Moths found in Britain.
1st. Ed. Pub. William Orr. 1832 pp.xxxvii, errata, [ii], 287 with vignette title-page. Small 8vo. Hardback. With dated signature of William Buckler (May 29th. 1855) and his neat annotations to twelve leaves. Small piece excised from ffep. and half-title. Some spotting o/w. contents fine. Period green cloth, spine more recently relaid, in thor. vg. to nr. fine condition. A unique copy.
‘For the last quarter-century of his life, William Buckler [1814-1884] devoted his energies to drawing and describing caterpillars of British moths and butterflies, [his] ‘Larvae of the British Butterflies and Moths’....was rightly hailed as the finest set of such illustrations ever made. It still is.’ (Salmon). For a fascinating biography of Buckler, we recommend reading Salmon’s ‘The Aurelian Legacy’.
£275.00 [ref: 63756]

view all images for this item

Saunders, Edward. The Hemiptera Heteroptera of the British Islands. A descriptive account of the Families, Genera, and Species Indigenous to Great Britain and Ireland, with notes as to Localities, Habitats, Etc.
1st. Ed. Pub. L. Reeve & Co. 1892 pp.vi, [1], 350 with one uncoloured and 31 hand-coloured plates. Large 8vo. Hardback. The large paper edition. Occasional, minor spotting, o/w. contents in fine condition. Bookplate of Arthur Cyrus Butterworth. Original binding with gilt lettered spine and gilt lozenge to front board, all in nr. fine condition. A very pleasing copy.
£275.00 [ref: 57956]

view all images for this item

Seitz, A. The Macrolepidoptera of the World. Volume 1. The Macrolepidoptera of the Palaearctic Fauna - Tome 3 Noctuiform Phalaenae.
1st Ed. Pub. Fritz Lehmann Verlag- Stuttgart. 1907 Bound in two volumes, the first comprising text, the second comprising 72 full-page, colour plates of chromolithograph images. Folio. Hardbacks. Contents in fine condition. Handsomely bound in half-morocco leather over cloth boards, gilt lettered spine, all in fine condition.
£300.00 [ref: 21139]

view all images for this item

Stainton, H.T. (et al). The Natural History of the Tineina. Volumes I to XIII.
1st. Ed. Pub. John van Voorst. 1855-1873 Thirteen volume set with 104 hand-coloured plates. 8vo. Hardbacks. Bookplate to Vol. 1. Some darkening and / or spotting to end-papers and the occ. title page. Some sections uncut. Elsewhere only minor spotting or marginal darkening, o/w. contents fine. Publisher’s blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine and blind rules to boards, nr. fine to fine. A very pleasing set indeed.
‘Distinguished for its beautiful hand-coloured plates of larvae, many of them drawn by [William] Buckler. The text is uniquely in four languages, English, French, German and Latin - Stainton was fluent in all of them - arranged in parallet columns’ (Salmon).
£1,100.00 [ref: 63627]

view all images for this item