Die ausländische oder die ausserhalb Europa zur Zeit in den übrigen Welttheilen vorgefundene Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen. Erster Theil

Description:

Part 1 (all published). First edition. Rare. The fine plates, after drawings by Esper, are delicately hand-coloured, and engraved by J.C. Bock, J.G. Sturm, H.J. Tyroff, and others. Each plate illustrates between two and four different butterflies, some also including their larvae, foodplants and pupae.

Eugen Johann Christoph Esper (1742-1810) was a German entomologist and phycologist, professor of zoology at Erlangen University.

Horn Schenkling 6085, Nissen ZBI, 1317.

Bound with: Friedrich Eugenius Esper, Beobachtungen an einer neuentdeckten Zwitterphaläne des Bombyx Crataegi, Erlangen, Wolfgang Walther, 1778, 20 pp., 1 hand-coloured engraed plate.

Horn Schenkling 6093.

Condition

4to, cont. half leather, neatly rebacked, preserving original spine, raised bands, gilt-tooled decoration to compartments, red leather title-piece, speckled, paper-covered boards, all edges tinted red. Some wear to corners; minor foxing to title page and occasionally elsewhere; some text leaves with faint old water stain to lower edge. Plates mounted so that they may be folded out and viewed at the same time as the text (stilted). Plates clean and bright. Bookplate of later owner. Fine.