VARIOUS AUTHORS; [Sir William JARDINE (1800-1874, his copy)]

[A sammelband of 14 works by various authors, an autograph letter, and a drawing, collected by William Jardine]

4to. (10 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches). Fourteen works bound in one volume, with numerous engraved and lithographic plates; original pencil sketch of a bird, signed at lower right, "Drawn by Sir William Jardine"; autograph letter signed by J. S. Henslow to William Jardine, 3 November 1835. Contemporary half calf, rebacked preserving the original spine.

Contemporary half calf (rebacked preserving original spine)

Provenance: Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet (1800-1874), Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (presentation inscriptions from several authors, ownership inscription to one title); Lord Richard Percy (1921-1989)

A revealing natural history sammelband from the library of Sir William Jardine, preserving a group of presentation copies, scientific papers, an autograph letter, and an original drawing associated with the exchange network of early nineteenth-century zoology.

This summelband includes several presentation inscriptions by leading naturalists, including Prideaux John Selby. Jardine and Selby collaborated on Illustrations of Ornithology (Edinburgh, 1826-1843), their major illustrated work on non-European birds, developed in close relation to Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology. The present volume, with its inscriptions, ownership signature, and Jardine's signed bird drawing, preserves the scholarly and artistic exchange behind that circle. The volume includes George Johnston's A Descriptive Catalogue of the Recent Zoophytes found on the Coast of North Durham, with six lithographic plates and inscribed to Jardine; Isaac Lea's "Description of Six New Species of the Genus Unio...," inscribed to Lady Jardine; Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau's "On the Mammoth or Fossil Elephant," with Jardine's ownership signature; and P. J. Selby's "Observations on the New Species of Swan," with three engraved plates and inscribed by Selby. Ten further papers, reports, extracts, and proceedings of learned societies, many illustrated, including works by Selby, Jenyns, Gillies, and others. The accompanying autograph letter from John Stevens Henslow, dated 3 November 1835, presents Jardine with a publication concerning Chiasognathus grantii, the striking Chilean stag beetle described by James Francis Stephens. The letter gives the volume a direct connection to the circulation of new zoological discoveries among British naturalists in the 1830s.

Item #41938

Price: $3,850.00