A Natural History of English Insects. Illustrated with a Hundred Copper Plates, curiously Engraven from the Life: And (for those who desire it) exactly Coloured by the Author … To which are added, Large Notes, and many Curious Observations. By W. Derham,

Description:

Second edition. Rare. The attractive plates illustrate mostly butterflies and moths and their larvae on food-plants. A few plates illustrate other insects. 'Each plate is dedicated to a subscriber or well-known personality, undoubtedly included those who acted as patrons or took interest in Albin's drawings of insects' (Linsey, 79). This edition was edited by Derham who appended his 'Notes' but otherwise made no alterations, the original sheets of text having been used.

Eleazar Albin (fl.1690-1742) was a naturalist and watercolour painter, the first of the great entomological book illustrators of the 18th century. Very little is known of his early life, he may have been born somewhere in the German states to a family named Weiss. By 1708 he had adopted the surname Albin, had married, and was living in or near the parish of St James's, Piccadilly. Around 1709-10 Albin met Mary, dowager duchess of Beaufort, a keen botanist who encouraged him to begin work on a natural history of insects. The first plates were engraved in 1713 and work proceeded apace until the onset of financial difficulties caused by the death of his patroness in January 1715. Although Albin had by this time already issued Proposals for Printing by Subscription ‘A Natural History of English Insects’ ([1714?]) from his premises, ‘next the Green Man near Maggots Brew House’ (Bristowe, ‘Life’, 82) in Golden Square, subscriptions were slow to come in and as a result the work was not finally published until 1720. Ultimately attracting 170 subscribers, 'A Natural History of English Insects' contained 100 copper plates which were hand-coloured by the author on request. Albin stressed that the insects depicted were copied ‘exactly after the Life’ as he had ‘observed it as a great Fault of those who have gone before me in this Way, that they either did not look often enough at their Pattern, or affected to make the Picture outdo Nature’.

'Natural History of English Insects’ is one of the finest British Lepidoptera books, the first to show British butterflies and moths in lifelike poses and full colour (Aurelian Legacy pp.109-110). It is a sumptuous, lavishly illustrated with exquisitely coloured plates intended for the enjoyment and delight of natural history enthusiasts, and for display in aristocratic libraries.

Albin further published 'A Natural History of Birds' (3 vols, 1731–8), 'A Natural History of Spiders' (1736), and illustrated (and possibly wrote) 'A Natural History of English Song-Birds' (1737). (ODNB)

Lisney, 120; Freeman, 45.

Condition

4to, cont. calf, boards with ornate gt borders, rebacked, raised bands, red leather title-piece, aeg, marbled endpapers. Some browning and light foxing (mostly to text); offseting to some of the plates. Plates well coloured, more 'life-like' than is often the case. An attractive copy of one of the finest British Lepidoptera books of the 18th-century.