A Natural History of English Insects. Illustrated with A Hundred Copper Plates, Curiously engraven from the Life, and exactly coloured by the Author. To which are added Large Notes and many curious Observations
London: Printed for William Innys, 1749. Third edition.
Quarto (11 ½” x 9”, 293mm x 226mm): 2 binder’s blanks, A-N4 O2, 2 binder’s blanks [$2 signed; –A1]. 54 leaves, pp. [108] (title, blank, 2pp. dedication, 4pp. preface, 100pp. description of the plates). With 100 hand-colored engraved plates (pl. LXXXIV heightened in gold) by Albin, H. Terasson, Hullet, and van Gucht after Albin; woodcut headpiece and initial to the dedication (A2r).
Bound in somewhat later red crushed morocco. On the boards, an elaborate gilt roll border surrounding a gilt floral border. On the spine, five raised bands with vertical gilt strokes. In the panels triple gilt fillet borders with gilt oak corner ornaments surrounding a gilt bee in a cartouche surmounted by a bird. Title gilt to green morocco in the second panel. Gilt roll to the edges of the board, gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers.
Spine a bit sunned. Fore-corners bumped, and some scuffing to the edges. Some little nicks and stains to the boards. Mild offsetting from the plates, but overall quite nice, with just a little foxing and robust margins including at the top. Armorial figural bookplate of John Thomas Stanley, Baron Stanley of Alderley on the front paste-down. With his ink and pencil notes throughout, including two watercolor sketches of a cricket (?) on the recto of the first binder’s blank and a pencil drawing of a moth (the poplar hawk moth, Sphinx populi according to the marginalium but properly Laothoe populi) on I1r.
William Derham (1657–1735) is best known for his 1696 Artificial Clockmaker, the great English book on watches. He was the first to measure the speed of sound (with apologies to Sir Isaac) and a theologian besides. Yet such was his curiosity that he was able to provide these Large Notes and curious Observations on English insects, first published in 1720. Although pre-Linnæan, he describes their forms well — in English, which is a rarity — as well as their habits and patterns, based on proper observation.
Albin is a slightly shadowier figure, though he seems to have died in 1742. The title claims that the author colored the plates, but this is impossible. He was a great and successful collector of a far rarer specimen than insects: aristocrats. The list of subscribers (not in this edition) glittered, and each plate is floridly dedicated to princesses, dukes, earls and dowagers of many ranks.
Lord Stanley (1766–1850) was a member of parliament for Wootton Basset 1790–1796; thereafter he dedicated himself literary and antiquarian interests. Throughout the book he notes (mostly in pencil) the specific dates and behaviors of the insects at Alderley Park, and in ink includes binomial names and references to a work abbreviated “Don.” At times he is disapproving of the illustrations; in his pencil drawing of the poplar hawk moth he notes that the color is light brown rather than the olive green of the plate. Elsewhere he simply remarks “a very bad representation” (C1v, opposite plate X).
ESTC notes that this edition was printed for Innys by William Bowyer, and the edition was 150 copies.
BM(NH) I p. 25 (lacking Derham’s notes), Brunet I, 142, ESTC T85943, Lisney 123, Lowndes p. 25, Nissen ZBI 58.
Item #6JLR0035
Price: $6,750