A HISTORY OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES
London: Groombridge and Sons, 1864. Fourth Edition. Hardcover. Morris (1810-93), an Anglo-Irish "parson-naturalist", aimed to inspire appreciation for Britain’s native butterfly species and their habitats with this exquisitely-rendered work. Small quarto: viii, 168, 29, [1, blank] pp. with a frontispiece with tissue guard and 70 full-page plates with tissue guards, all color wood engravings with additional hand coloring, by Benjamin Fawcett, as well as 1 double-page plate with tissue guard, a wood engraving. In the publisher's forest green irregular-grain cloth binding, with blind-stamped ruled and ornamental borders with decorative corners and spandrels and a gilt-stamped vignette of butterflies on a branch on the front panel; gilt-stamped floral decorations, vignettes of butterflies and caterpillars, and titling on the spine; a blind-stamped repetition of the front on the rear panel, and yellow coated endpapers. Some occasional foxing to the contents; the plates are largely unaffected. The binding is uncommonly clean and bright. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin. Very good. Item #80053
Price: $500.00