** Stunning hand-coloured engravings, many heightened with gold/silver and gum arabic **

Oeuvres du comte de Lacepede, comprenant l'histoire naturelle des quadrupedes ovipares, des serpents, des poissons et des cetaces (3 volumes)
by
Bernard Germain Etienne de La Ville sur Illon

[ PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR MORE PICTURES ]

DETAILS: (Paris): P. Dumenil, 1836. New edition. Contemporary quarter calf binding, with marbled boards and endpapers. 488; 480; 427pp. Illustrated with 106 hand-coloured engraved plates, many heightened with gold or silver and/or gum arabic. 8vo (standard sized book). This is a heavy item weighing over 1.25kg with packaging.

CONDITION: Very Good to Near Fine (see table below for details). All volumes: A little rubbing to boards, mostly at corners. Ink inscription to fly leaf of Volume 1, front endpaper missing from Volume 2. Very light foxing to some edges, and a few scattered pages, but most pages are bright. Some browning to plates, heavier to some, but illustrations still impressive. Bindings solid. *Photo(s) given of actual book.

CONTENTS: A curious three volume set from French naturalist Bernard Germain Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède (1756-1825). There are alternative editions of this work; this is the three volume 1836 edition. The work covers natural history, containing details of hundreds of species of animals (as mentioned in the title, they include quadrupeds, reptiles (including a lengthy section on snakes), fishes (taking up the majority of the three volumes) and cetaceans. Each entry includes basic details of the creature - description, size, distribution - plus other natural history notes, ranging from a short paragraph to a couple of pages on each. Entries include: (Volume 1): Tortues (Tortues de mer - La Tortue France, La Couane, Le Caret, Le Luth; Tortues d'eau douce et de terre - La Bourbeuse, La Ronde, La Jaune, La Noiratre, La Grecque, Le Vermillon, La Bombée); Lézards (Le Crocodile, Le Gavial, Le Dragonne, Le Basilic, Le Caméléon, Le Grison, Le Mabouya, Le Seps); Salamdres; Des quadrupeds ovipares qui n'ont point de queue (La Rouse, La Pluviale, La Jachie, La Brune, La Réticulaire); Crapauds (Le Crapaud commun, Le Vert, Le Calamite, Le Bossu, Le Pipa); Reptiles Bipedes (Le Cannelé, Le Sheltopusik); Serpens (La Vipere commune, L'Aspie, La Mélanis, Le Lébetin, Le Corallin, Le Dipse, La Tigrée); Couleuvres (La Lisse, La Violette, Le Bali, La Rude, La Galonée, La Rayée, La Sombre, La Cobel, Le Sipede, Le Calmar, L'Ovivore, Le Chayonte, Le Muet, Le Millet, Le Visqueux); Poissons (Le Pétromyzon lamproie, Le Raie miralet, Le Squale requin, Le Squale griset, La Lophie baudroie); (Volume 2) Poissons (La Baliste vieille, La Chimere arctique, Le Tétredon perroquet; Le Diodon antiga, Le gymnote électrique, Le Gade morue, Les Blennies, Les Gobies, Les Scomberoides, Les Coris, Les Osphronemes; Les Coryphenes, Les cottes, Les Scorpenes, Les Trigles, Les Mulles, Les Labres, Les Scares, Les Spares, Les Lutjans, Les Centropomes; (Volume 3) Les Bodians, Les Holocentres, Les Perseques, Les Chétodons, Les Pomacanthes, Les Holacanthes, Les Pleuronectes, Les Achires, Les Chrysostromes, Les Cirrhites, Les Pimelodes, Les Salmones, Les Corégones, Les Sphyrenes, Les Clupées, Les Cyprins, Les Murenophis; Cétacées (La Baleine franche, La Baleinoptere gibbar, Le Narwal vulgaire, L'Anarnak groenlandais, Le Cachalot macrocéphale, Le Physétere microps, Le Deplhinaptere béluga, Le Dauphin vuglgaire, L'Hypéroodon butskopf. The title page states that there are 100 plates in total (planche gravees sur acier), but this copy has 104 hand-coloured plates plus 2 additional duplicate plates, making a total of 106 plates. We can find no comparable copies with hand-colouring.  There are the following number of full page plates: Turtles / tortoises - 5; Crocodiles / lizards - 12; Salamanders / toads / frogs - 6; Snakes - 15 (plus one duplicate);  Fish (ind. sharks, sea horses and deap sea fish) - 61; Cetaceans - 5. Each full page plate contains two or three species. Aside from a little browning to some plates, the engravings themselves are still in stunning condition, beautifully hand-coloured, and many finished with gum arabic and/or gold or silver to heighten the effect of the colouring and mimic the shimmer of the scales and skin. The effect is striking, especially on the snakes and fishes where the scales catch the light and provide depth to the image. Our photographs do not properly capture this effect. The work is solidly bound in contemporary quarter calf. A highly desirable and rare set for collectors of natural history and wildlife illustrations.