One Hundred and Twenty Copper-Plates of English Moths and Butterflies, representing Their Changes into the Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Fly States, and The Plants, Flowers, and Fruits whereon they feed…
London: Printed for Benjamin White, 1773. Second edition.
Pot folio (12” x 10 ¼”, 304mm x 261mm). 58 leaves, pp. [2] (title, blank), 1-3 (2pp. dedication, catalogue) 4-8, [20] (4pp. preface, 7pp. introduction, 2pp. Aurelian Society members’ places of collection, 3pp. directions for catching specimens, synoptical table of specimens, blank, 2pp. subscribers), 21-63, [5] (blank, 2pp. index to the flies, 2pp. index to the plants). With 120 hand-colored engraved plates (pl. IX mis-signed as XI).
Bound in XIXc straight-grained violet morocco. On the boards, a quintuple gilt fillet border surrounding a gilt palmette border surrounding a blind palmette border. On the spine, five raised bands, six gilt fillets between scrollwork. In the panels, gilt scrollwork borders. Title gilt to the second panel. On the edges of the boards, gilt wavy roll, repeated on the inside dentelle. Brown end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Front board starting at the upper edge. Scuffs to the extremities, and wear to the fore-corners. Upper silk head-band perished. With a very light general tanning to the text, and very occasional foxing. Some offsetting to plates and scattered foxing. Rich and expressive original color. Good margins. With the bookplate of Selina Mary Knightley to the front paste-down.
Benjamin Wilkes (d. 1749) was from a young age a member of the Aurelian Society (aurelia being the Latin for chrysalis), which, after many iterations, would go on to be the kernel of the Royal Entomological Society. The first edition of the English Moths and Butterflies was published in 1749, and Wilkes (is said to have) died a week after its publication. The title places great emphasis on the coloration of the plates, and the flowing and ebullient execution of the coloration suggests a colorist in command of her art, and likely closely affiliated with the publisher.
Wilkes engaged two of the most celebrated botanical artists of the XVIIIc, Georg Dionysius Ehret and Jacob van Huysum, to carry out the illustrations. It is curious that they should work on a book of moths and butterflies, but there is no comparable tradition of entomological illustration at this period. This would account for the prominence — indeed sometimes the overwhelming prominence — of botanical elements in the plates. Wilkes in his text is careful to detail the relationships between insects and specific plants.
Dame Selina Mary Knightley (née Hervey, 1781–1856) was the wife of Sir Charles Knightley Bt. and mother of Sir Rainald, both conservative MPs for Northamptonshire. Her will (PROB 11/2246/157) makes clear that she was a woman of considerable means; other books of hers have come to market, although generally with the bookplates of her husband or son attached. This volume might therefore have been a personal favorite.
Engelmann p. 557, Hagen p. 289, Lisney 185-7, Nissen ZBI 4410a.
Item #6JLR0033
Price: $15,000